


How to Change the Future

by Rika_chan24



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 16:32:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1611884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rika_chan24/pseuds/Rika_chan24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fourth Great Ninja War is over. Sasuke helped Naruto defeat Madara. But Now that the war is over. Only Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura are left. So Kurama sends the three of them back to a week before they are Genin. They hope to change the future into something better. Time-Travel!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.

**************************************

 

There they sat, back to back breathing heavily. They fought once more as a team.

"We did it, the wars over." A pink haired girl said.

"Yes, but with great loss." A blue-eyed blond replied.

"I know…." The pink haired girl muttered as tears came to her eyes. She couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Sakura…we may be that last three alive now." A dark-haired boy began."Kakashi, the Konoha 12, the other sensei's….." The dark-haired boy continued on.

It had been almost three months since they last saw someone they actually knew. That was when Shikamaru, Neji, Sai, and Shino were sent out to take out a base; the seven of had been the last of the leaf village.

Now it was just the three of them left. Everyone else had died before this. No one had the time to mourn those that had died, after all there was a war going on. The war had changed many people.

"Sasu…ke…..you don't have to remind me …that no one else is left…." Sakura cried through tears. "What do we do now? I can't even really move."

"I think I know of a way…." The blond boy began to say. He paused as if he was still considering his idea.

"What is it Naruto?" Sasuke asked his best friend. Sasuke had teamed up with them after re-killing Orochimaru. The three of them had teamed up in the end to fight off Madara. Obito had died the same day as Kakashi did.

"I have talked to Kurama; he knows of a way we can go back in time. To before all of this, we can stop a lot of things from happening. We could save everyone. We wouldn't have our full power, just our knowledge of this time, and any jutsu's we know. We just have to relearn them, and build up our body strength and stamina." Naruto explained.

"Really we can go back? We can save everyone?" Sakura asked hopefully.

"We can, Kurama doesn't know how far back we will go, but far enough that we can stop a lot of this from happening." Naruto replied.

"Let's do it" Sasuke suddenly said. "It's a chance for us to start over and save everyone. I didn't care much for everyone else, but they are important. Maybe this time around I can actually make a bond with the others."

"I am in too!" "How does it work?" Sakura asked turning to Naruto.

"Kurama will do it, just add your chakra in with mine." Naruto answered.

Both nodded in understanding, before they placed a hand on his shoulder. A few minutes later there was a flash of light and the three friends blacked out.

**************************

(Naruto's POV)

"Naruto!" A familiar voice I hadn't heard in a long time shouted.

I opened my eyes, and just in time for me to see an eraser coming at me. I caught it in mid-air before it could hit me, "Why was this eraser being thrown at me?"

"Iruka?" I called out loud, slightly confused. I almost jumped in surprise when I heard laughter from around me. I was in the Academy! "It worked! The jutsu worked. I made it back before I became a Genin, but how far back?"

"Naruto, why were you sleeping? This is the third time this week." Iruka asked with a sigh. I had to really fight the urge to hug him. Iruka had died not long after Kakashi.

"Well…I um….didn't sleep well last night! I had a nightmare." That sounded like a good excuse to me.

"Fine, I will let it go. I don't want you falling asleep in my class anymore." Iruka replied as he turned back to the board to continue on with the lesson.

As soon as Iruka turned his back, I searched the room. "Did Sakura and Sasuke make it back too?" I looked towards Sasuke's usual spot in the academy. There he was, staring out the window. "I wonder if it's actually him from the future."

Sasuke turned to look at me, as if he knew I was watching him. Once his eyes met mine he smirked, and then signaling me. "It was him!" The three of us made up our own signals during the war.

I quickly signed back, before turning away from him to check if Sakura had made it back too. It also helped that since we had been shinobi for a few years, you can easily pick up if someone is watching you.

Just like with Sasuke, she was sitting in her usual seat next to Ino not very far from Sasuke. Sakura didn't look at me at all, but a few minutes later she turned towards me quickly, while Iruka's back was turned.

She signed in my direction. I signed back when she turned her head to look at me again a few minutes later.

Good, we were all here, now class just needs to end. We had a lot of planning to do. I really needed to find out what the date was.

Luckily Iruka always put it on the board every day. I looked back to the board to find the date, where Iruka always had it.

"So it's a week before our Genin exam. We could work with that, but once we start working with Kakashi we will have to be more careful about what we show. Or we could always freak him out a little" Naruto held in a laugh. That sure sounded like a fun idea.

It wasn't much longer for class to end. Before I left I made sure to give Iruka a quick hug. I couldn't hold it any longer. Hopefully I could control it when it came to everyone else. I did pretty well during class without shouting in joy and hugging everyone in sight.

I met up with Sakura and Sasuke soon after at the tree in front of the academy. Next to the swing, I always liked.

"So what's the plan Dobe?" Sasuke asked as soon as I was close enough to hear. I should have known. I am going to be stuck with that name forever. Stupid bastard, he knows I am way stronger than him.

"Knock it off you two, I don't want to listen to you guys fighting. I really don't have the patience to deal with the two of you." Sakura sighed, she knew how they could get.

I quickly pushed out my chakra to make sure no one would over hear our conversation before finally answering Sasuke's question. "So we have a whole week before our Genin exams. Right now is the easiest time for us to train without raising any suspicion.

So we can train after class and during the weekend. We have to get as strong as we can before the Chunnin exams. That is our first big problem" I explained to them. "Sure Wave plays a big part too, but not as big as the Chunnin exams."

"Ok, that sounds like a pretty good plan for now, we can always add details later. So let's go start that training." Sasuke declared. Sasuke started to walk away from them and head towards the nearest training grounds.

"We probably should look for a training ground that no one uses, like at all. We will cause too much attention if we train in training grounds that are more commonly used." Sakura suggested.

We both agreed with her, we definitely did not want to gain any attention. At least not yet. The three of us then set out to find an unoccupied training ground.

**********************

(No one's POV)

The three time travelers, spent most of the week training and going over plans for the future of Konoha. The Genin exams went much like the same as before, even dealing with Mizuki. Though this time Naruto copied down other jutsu that the three of them could use.

Team Seven were now sitting in the classroom waiting for Kakashi. Though this time they were well ready for their tardy sensei.

"So Kakashi will be here in what, like two hours?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, so we are going to have fun with this right?" Naruto asked his two best friends.

"Oh we are. Otherwise we would have to wait until the wave mission for anything exciting to happen. At this point everything will be boring tell then." Sasuke replied.

"Naruto, I am so glad you got that stick out of Sasuke's ass. Now he actually interacts with the world." Sakura laughed at her own words.

"Shut up! Back then all of you just annoyed me." Sasuke grumbled.

"Look what you did Sakura. You are turning him back to being a brooding bastard." Naruto replied with a snicker.

Sasuke grumbled again, "You two are so getting your ass kicked when we spar."

"Sure Sasuke….." Sakura stopped in her sentence when the door opened to show Kakashi's gravity defining silver hair.

The three of them held the urge to hug him, well two out of three. Sasuke doesn't really hug anyone. After all Kakashi was like their big brother/parental guardian. Sakura was chewing on her bottom lip to hold herself back. The other two weren't fairing much better.

"Meet me on the roof" and with a puff of smoke he was gone.

*************

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat across from Kakashi, silently observing each other.

"Ok, why don't we get to know each other a bit?" Kakashi said after looking each of them over.

"You go first sensei, that way we can have an example." Sakura replied. After all they have to somewhat play along.

"Alright, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I have some likes and dislikes. A few hobbies. My dream….well I had one the other day."

The three soon to be genin nodded. They already knew what he was going to say. Kakashi pointed to Sakura, "Pinky your turn."

"Ok…I am Sakura Haruno. I like my friends and family, cooking, healing people, training, books. I dislike a guy, people who judge others before they know them. My hobbies…training, healing, cooking, reading. My dream is to become the best medic ninja in the word, even better than Tsunade of the Sannin. And to help my friends with their dreams."

Kakashi was definitely surprised with her introduction, none of it matched her academy profile. Plus her hair was now shorter, and she was wearing more suitable ninja clothes. "Alright, the dark-haired one, your turn."

"I am Sasuke Uchiha. I like my friends and family, training, tomato's, reading, Shogi. I dislike a man, people who can't see the difference between a Kunai and a scroll. My hobbies training, reading, Shogi. My dream is to become an Anbu captain, and be one of the strongest Ninja in the world.

This added even more confusion to Kakashi. Sasuke's academy profile didn't match this introduction either. It said he wanted to get revenge on his brother. "Ok, now for you Blondie."

Naruto smiled. "I am Naruto Uzumaki. I like my friends and those I consider family, training, ramen, sealing, the village, food, training, reading, and protecting others. I dislike….a certain dude that ruined everything. My hobbies…training, creating seals, writing, reading um…other things I can't really think of at the moment. My dream is to always protect my precious people no matter what, and always be there for them.

Even if it puts my life and dreams behind theirs. I also want to become the strongest Hokage there ever lived.

So that I will be able to protect my precious people and everyone that lives in the village even if they hate me.

I want to become one of the strongest shinobi in the entire shinobi world. All so that none of my precious people have to suffer."

There was a long silence after Naruto's introduction. Sasuke and Sakura both glanced at him. No one could ever figure out how Naruto just seems to captures everyone's attention with his speeches.

They are one of the many things that make people believe in him. It's something that the Konoha 12 and many others pondered about Naruto.

Kakashi was almost utterly confused by know. Naruto's introduction didn't match his academy record either. He also seemed to care very deeply for people who are precious to him. Not many ninja care as much as that for their comrades.

Naruto claimed to care for them a whole lot more than the average shinobi. Even to people he barely knew, and even to the village that hated him.

"Alright tomorrow we will start with some survival training. Just with the four of us"

Sakura sighed; she was going have to ask in order for this conversation to move along faster. "But we did survival training in the academy, why do we have to do more?"

Kakashi chuckled, he would surprise them now. "Because all teams have to do this. Out of 27 graduates only 9 will pass. It has a 66% failure rate."

None of genin from the future, showed any surprise by this. What the heck was up with this team.

The Academy records stated that he would get the revenge obsessed last Uchiha, a fan girl, and a dead last idiot. So far they didn't show any of that. He might have to talk to the Hokage about this.

"Anyways, meet me at training ground 7 at 6am tomorrow." Kakashi pause for a minute. "Oh and I would suggest that you don't eat breakfast, you might throw up." With that Kakashi was gone, leaving the three Genin alone.


	2. Chapter 2

"What should we do now?" Sakura asked turning to her two teammates.

"I think we should start hanging out with the others. If we can get them to start improving early, then there will be less stress of us.

We won't have to worry about them getting hurt. As you know in the future were not always there to save them." Naruto explained.

"Then how do you propose we actually do that?" Sasuke asked. "They are not going to just do as we say."

"I know! We can have a congratulatory picnic. We tell them we want to celebrate the nine of us passing the actual test." Sakura suggested. "We can have it at training ground 7."

"That's not a bad idea. We could spar against each other too. If we show them that the three of us are stronger than we all actually showed in the academy. It might just motivate them enough to work harder." Sasuke replied.

"If it all goes to plan, then we can start making it a weekly get together. We could even get Team Gai to join the group a few weeks after.

If we catch their attention early, it might help us out in the long run." Naruto explained.

"You really just want to see all of them, don't you?"

"Of course I do Sakura, they all either died or were captured. I want all of us to live this time around. I am going to try my hardest to keep it that way." Naruto replied.

"I think that should work for now. Let's go track the teams down. We can plan our first "Get together" after our test tomorrow." Sasuke said. "So who should we look for first? They all might be home by now?"

"No, I remember Shikamaru telling me that they were at the barbecue place tell evening. Kiba I believe, told me they had their test the same day as introduction. So if we hurry we can catch them before they head home." Naruto explained.

"Then Team 8 is probably the team we should look for first. We have until at least tell five or six to meet up with Team 10." Sakura said.

"I think they might be at training ground 8. They always go there, at least that's what Kiba told me. I am too far away to sense them from here. It would be easier if I could go into sage mode"

"Let's just go already." Sasuke interrupted as he jumped down from academy roof to another smaller roof nearby.

**********************

It didn't take long for them to find Team 8. Kurenai raised an eyebrow at the three of them when Team 7 walked into the training grounds. "Weren't they supposed to be with Kakashi."

"What are you three doing here?" Kiba asked as soon as he spotted them.

"We just wanted to know, if you guys wanted to come to our congratulatory picnic at training ground 7 around One pm tomorrow?" Sakura explained.

"You want us to go on a picnic with you?" Kiba asked, as Akumaru barked from on top of Kiba's head.

"Were planning to invite Team 10 too, we were planning to do a little sparring. If you are up to it, of course." Sasuke smirked; they were definitely going to come now.

"I..think..I..t will be…a gre..at idea….I will…go." Hinata shuttered as she poked her fingers together.

"That's awesome Hinata! What about you Shino? Kiba?" Naruto asked in excitement. This was going just how he wanted it.

"I suppose it would be a good idea. I will go" Shino responded.

"Fine I will go too! It will even give me a chance at kicking your ass in a spar." Kiba said quite loudly.

"We will see about that Dog breath. I am way better than you think." Naruto replied with a foxy grin.

Kiba huffed, "I will believe it when I see it."

"Well we should probably go now, so that you can get back to training. Bye, see all of you tomorrow." Sakura butted in, before Naruto and Kiba could start a bigger argument.

"Right, we still have to talk to Team 10." Sasuke added.

"Bye guys, bye Kurenai-sensei, sorry for bothering your team." Naruto cried out, before the three of them jumped into the trees to head to the barbecue place.

*************

"Man, I am starving."

"You're always starving Dobe," Sasuke replied as they jumped from roof to roof.

"Shut up Teme! I can't help that I am hungry. Though too bad it's not a ramen place. I haven't had any in a long time."

"You had some yesterday. Right after we trained." Sasuke replied.

"Oh yeah….well it's still a long time. Before we came back I hadn't had ramen in months."

"Both of you knock it off. Were here." Sakura stated as they dropped down at the entrance of the barbecue restaurant.

"Good thing the owners are ok with me being here." Naruto pointed out as they walked in.

"There they are" Sasuke pointed to Team 10 at a small booth. Shikamaru looked absolutely bored. Ino was shouting at Choji for eating all the food, and Asuma looked almost as bored as Shikamaru.

"Hey guys!" Naruto shouted at them, as they walked up.

"What are you three doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Kakashi?" Asuma asked.

"We have our test tomorrow. We came here to ask the three of you something." Sasuke replied turning towards the three twelve-year olds of Team 10.

"What troublesome thing is it?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn.

"Yeah Forehead, what do you guys want?" Ino added.

All three younger members of Team 10 looked at them for an answer.

"We wanted to know if you guys wanted to come to our congratulatory picnic. Team 8's going. We will probably spar a little too." Naruto answered.

"Where at and when is it?" Choji asked

"Training ground 7, tomorrow at One pm. Are you in?" Sakura asked.

"I will go, anything to be with my Sasuke-Kun, and to beat you Forehead!" Ino shouted.

"I don't think so Ino-pig. I can easily beat you." Sakura replied.

"That's a lie Forehead!" Ino argued.

Naruto ignored the two fighting Kunoichi, "So will you guys go?"

"Sure, it's free food. All of us probably won't get to hang out much once we start missions and stuff." Choji replied.

"You never know Choji, we could always make this a weekly thing." Naruto replied knowingly.

"I was also planning on bringing a Shogi board. Hopefully someone else is good enough to beat me. We all know Naruto can't." Sasuke stated.

"Hey I have you know. I am pretty good at it. I beat you a few times." Naruto grumbled.

"Sure you do Dobe." Sasuke replied with a smirk.

"Troublesome, I guess I will go. Maybe I will get a chance to stare at some clouds. I might even take you up on your challenge Uchiha."

"Looking forward to it then. We should probably go before Sakura and Ino trash the place." Sasuke replied pointing to the two arguing girls.

"Good point. Sakura! Come on we are leaving. We still have stuff to do." Naruto yelled to her. The two arguing girls stopped shouting at each other when Naruto called to Sakura.

"Oh right. Well by Ino-pig, see you tomorrow." Sakura said as she began to walk towards the front door.

"Bye Shikamaru, Choji see you tomorrow." Naruto waved to them. "Bye Asuma-Sensei, sorry we disturbed your team meeting." With that the three of members of Team 7 left. Ino sat back down in her seat beside Choji.

"What's with Team 7. They are acting quite troublesome. I don't think I have ever seen Sasuke talk that much." Shikamaru mumbled.

"Yeah, they seemed different." Choji added. "But didn't you say Naruto was always troublesome?"

"I did say that, he is more troublesome then anyone I will ever know" Shikamaru replied.

"Alright boys that's enough talk. We will meet tomorrow at nine. I will make sure you're training's done before One." Asuma interrupted them.

****************

(Training ground 42)

After training for a few hours Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat under a tree to discuss their plan for the next day.

"Getting the teams to agree about the picnic went well, now we all we have to do tomorrow, is pass our test with Kakashi." Sakura said to her teammates.

"Yeah, luckily we know everyone pretty well." Naruto began.

So at this moment, our current level is where it was during the end of the Chunnin exams.

Except I can't use Rasengan, or toads until I sign the contract and train with Ero-sannin. It would be too suspicious if I can just use it out of the blue.

So I need to increase my speed and strength for now. Maybe add a few more wind jutsu's." Naruto explained.

"Were all in the same boat here, we can't use anything extreme yet, unless we have to." Sasuke replied.

"Luckily our teamwork is back in sync. Since we work well with each other, we should be able to surprise Kakashi. He will probably underestimate us for the test anyways. So far we have the advantage."

"Let's go rest up, and eat something. Wait why didn't we eat when we were at the barbecue place?"

"I don't know. You were talking about being hungry before we got there. Come on, we can go eat something now." Sakura replied to Naruto's question.

Sakura you are going to have to bring the food for the picnic." Sasuke suddenly said.

"Right, because if I let the two of you get the food. The only food that would be in the basket is Ramen and tomatoes!"

"That's not true, I would bring other things. Besides there isn't anything wrong with Ramen!"

"There isn't anything wrong with tomatoes either. There healthy for you." Sasuke commented.

Sakura sighed. "You two can't really cook much anyways. Naruto will get over priced for food or get spoiled food if he bought stuff at the store. And you Sasuke, wouldn't even take the time to bring other food."

"Well that's why you're bringing the food." Naruto replied. "Come on let's go already."

***************************

(The next morning at Training ground 7)

Kakashi arrived at training ground 7 at ten am, no one was in sight. He could feel their chakra signatures but he couldn't see them.

A puff of smoke suddenly appeared in front of him. Only to reveal his team. All three looked refreshed and ready to go.

"Sorry were late sensei, you see my alarm doesn't work so I got up late. And on the way here I found a drowning fish that needed saving. I had to save it you see. Every life is important." Naruto replied with a straight face.

"I was late because as I was leaving, a cat jumped through my window and into my house. I had to get him out before I could leave. He ran all over my house and broke a lot of things. My parents made me clean it up." Sakura replied.

"I was late because my alarm clock was broken. So I had to go buy a new one. There was a long line at the check-out counter, and sadly the line was filled with mostly fan-girls." Sasuke explained.

Kakashi sweat dropped. "Are my excuses that bad?". If they were going to be ninja they would have to be more serious.

"Ok well let's start the test." Kakashi pulled out two bells. "You have to get these from me, and you have until noon to do so."

"But there is only two bells sensei."

"I know, only two of you will be getting a bell. One of you won't get a bell and that person will be tied to the pole with no lunch. That person will also be going back to the academy." Kakashi explained.

Kakashi smirked behind his mask. He got them now. But to Kakashi's surprise they didn't react to it at all. What was up with his team?

Kakashi set the timer to an alarm clock he had brought to noon, and sat the clock down on the middle stump. "Begin." With those words Team 7 vanished into the trees.

"Weird, I can barely sense them anymore. Do they know how to suppress their chakra?" Kakashi thought. "My team sure is interesting. I wonder what they can do."

Kakashi then proceeded to pull out his beloved orange book from his pouch. A few minutes later he had to jump away from a barrage of Kunai and Shuriken. To his surprise, Sasuke came charging at him as a fast pace for a genin. Kakashi went to intercept Sasuke when he felt another presence coming at him from behind. He discovered that it was Naruto.

"So maybe they will figure out my test." Kakashi quickly put his book away. He would need both of his hands to fend the two of them off.

The two jumped away from him, and both slid into a Taijutsu stance.

The two proceeded to attack him at once. One attacking where the other wasn't. They worked well with each other as if had been working together for years.

It was getting a bit harder to block both of them at the same time. The three of them had been fighting off each other for over twenty minutes now.

Kakashi side jumped away just in time to miss Sakura come at him from his right. "So they were leading me towards her."

Kakashi's eyes widened when Naruto and Sasuke both began doing hand signs. "No way, they can't know that."

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu"

Kakashi quickly used Body replacement to get out-of-the-way. Once the technique was over Kakashi surveyed the damage. "How much chakra was in that!"

Kakashi jumped down from the tree a moment later. He was definitely going to have to be careful.

Sakura and Sasuke came rushing at him this time. Naruto hung back, waiting for something. Kakashi quickly began fending them off.

"Wow Sakura is pretty good in Taijutsu. Her records said she was really low in taijutsu."

"Kage Bunshin No Jutsu" At those words many Naruto's appeared around the training grounds.

As soon as the Naruto clones appeared they began swarming Kakashi. Sakura and Sasuke jumped out of the way as the Naruto clones swarmed around them.

Kakashi swiftly made his way through all the clones. He didn't notice that they were getting him pushed back into a triple tripwire. Once he set it off, it was too late and he was caught into a chakra infused net. Sakura quickly grabbed the bells from his belt just before Kakashi cut himself lose.

Just as he freed himself from the trap, the alarm clock went off.

"The three of you are good. I didn't expect that at all." Kakashi replied truthfully. "so Sakura who are you going to give the other bell to?"

"To both of them, after all they did most of the work." Sakura said throwing them each a bell.

"No way Sakura, you did a lot during the test. You can have my bell." Naruto said throwing his bell back to her.

"No you don't Naruto, you can have my bell." Sasuke passed him the bell he was holding. "After all it was mostly your plan."

"You don't have to worry about it, all three of you pass!" Kakashi replied.

"The reason for this test is for teamwork, but the three of you already knew that didn't you."

"Of course we know, after all you have to look underneath the underneath." Naruto replied with a foxy grin.

"That is correct. Those who abandon the mission are trash. But those who abandon your comrades are worse than trash." Kakashi explained to them.

The three genin smiled and smirked in Sasuke's case at his words.

"We will meet tomorrow at the bridge over there at 7am." Kakashi said pointing to a bridge a few yards away. "Later". Kakashi waved before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"That was quite fun don't you think?" Naruto asked his friends.

"A drowning fish Naruto? That's the best you got?" Sakura replied.

"I thought it was funny! Have you heard the excuses Kakashi has given us?"

"The others with be here soon, Sakura why don't you go get the picnic supplies. Naruto and I can clean up the training grounds." Sasuke explained before another argument started.

Sakura nodded before leaving the two best friends alone. Hopefully they don't start fighting while she was gone.

It normally happened if she left the two of them alone long enough. Sometimes they just did it for fun too.

************************


	3. Chapter 3

Team Ten walked into training ground 7 just before One pm. They paused in their tracks when they found Sasuke and Naruto in a fierce taijutsu match. The two of them were shouting at each other about something. Shikamaru couldn't really make it out.

"Troublesome"

"They look pretty evenly matched, in the academy Naruto never fought like that." Choji stated as he munched on some chips.

"Yeah, and Sasuke always beat him. Now it's hard to tell who will even win." Shikamaru replied.

"Where the heck is forehead girl?" Ino asked looking around for her pink-haired best friend.

"What are they fighting about?" Kiba's voice asked followed by a bark from Akumaru. Team 8 had arrived.

"I don't even know. It's too troublesome."

"I can barely follow their movements; they are fighting at a high-speed." Shino observed.

"I hope…they...won't get…hurt…too badly." Hinata added softly.

The six genin watched Naruto and Sasuke spar against each other for ten minutes. Before Ino broke the silence.

"Maybe we should break them up…." Ino suggested as she watched the two jump apart from each other, only for them to jump right back in.

"Ino I don't think we could stop them. Instead of slowing down they seem to be speeding up." Shikamaru answered.

*********

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" Sakura's voice shouted from behind the two teams. Most of them jumped in surprise. How could they not notice Sakura approach. Sakura was now standing beside them carrying a big basket and a large blanket.

Naruto and Sasuke didn't seem to have heard their teammate's shout. They were still going at it. It was like they weren't even paying attention to the outside world.

"Uh, hey Sakura. We just got here a little bit ago. Your teammates have been fighting since before we even arrived. They didn't even notice us." Ino explained to her.

"I see." Sakura set the basket and blanket down before marching over towards her two fighting teammates.

"This doesn't look to good." Choji said as he ate another chip from his bag of chips.

"Hey Choji share some of those chips. I didn't brink any popcorn." Kiba told the Akimichi.

Choji held the bag out towards the Inuzuka, who dug his hand into the bag to take a few.

"Be careful…Sakura…" Hinata quietly called after her.

"What the heck do you two think you are doing?!" Sakura yelled at her teammates as she jumping right in between them, and punching the ground in the process. Leaving a small crater where her fist had been. Sasuke and Naruto froze in their tracks. They were in trouble now.

"Uh hey Sakura-chan….We were just uh sparring." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Don't be angry at me." "It was all Sasuke-teme's fault!" Naruto said quickly.

"No it wasn't Dobe, you started it"

"It was…." Naruto was interrupted by Sakura.

"Both of you knock it off right now! Our friends are here for a two know when you spar that you forget about everything around you. We don't have time for that!"

"Sorry Sakura." The two boys replied in unison.

"Good now come on, everyone else is waiting." Sakura turned back to the others. Ino, Kiba, Choji, and Hinata faces showed of shocked and disbelief.

"How did you do that?" Ino asked after a few minutes.

"You mean the punch? I just enhanced my punch with chakra, and let it all out at once. Didn't you know that's how Tsunade of the Sannin fights?" Sakura replied.

Ino shook her head. "I didn't know you were that strong Sakura." "Well I didn't know any of you were that strong."

"They three of us have trained a lot. Most of it was in secret, if we want this generation of ninja to be better than the ones before. Then we have to step it up. We got a long way to go before we surpass anyone. We do have a tough match up, but I think we can do it." Naruto grinned. "Well let's eat already I am starving!"

Everyone seemed to snap out of whatever weird daze they were in when Naruto stopped talking.

"Yeah, then I want to spar with you Naruto." Kiba replied. Akumaru barked in agreement.

"I also had Sakura bring the Shogi as well. If any of you would care to play a round with me." Sasuke explained.

"I suppose I could play you in a game, after we eat." Shino replied.

Sasuke nodded. "What about you Shikamaru?"

"Troublesome, I guess I could play the winner."

"You guys do that." "Forehead I want a sparring match against you. I want to see how strong you have become." Ino told her friend. "Even with your new little trick."

Once the blanket was spread out, and the food was passed out. Everyone found a spot under the shade of a large tree began to eat, while talking to one another.

"Awesome my idea is working; it won't be long in till we can add Team Gai too. Lee should be easiest one to convince. We'll be strong in no time." Naruto thought as he watched everyone talk together.

"So how did you guys come up with this idea anyways?" Choji asked when there was a pause in conversation.

"That's easy. We wanted to celebrate graduating, why not with your friends. We could also celebrate that we were the nine genin that made it through the real test." Sakura replied.

"But…how...did….you know…that yesterday….Didn't you have…your test this morning? Hinata asked.

Everyone turned to the tree members of Team 7. They had all been thinking the same thing.

"Well we were going to celebrate even if we didn't pass. Though I knew we would pass from the start. Our team consist of the last Uchiha, a Kunoichi that will become the best medical ninja ever, and me the future Orange Hokage!" Naruto replied.

"What's wrong with all of us hanging out anyways? Were all friends. You only get stronger by protecting and working together with your precious people"

"That's really nice of you," Shino commented. "Friends seem very important to you."

"Aren't they for you?" Sasuke replied. "It's almost the same way with your bugs. Think of it like a big hive working together to protect one another."

"I will always cherish my friends no matter what. There is too many things in life we take for granted. One moment it's there and the next it's gone. I don't want to lose anything if I can help it." Naruto added.

"You talk as if we are all going to die tomorrow." Shikamaru analyzed. "You're really troublesome Naruto."

"Crap, I forgot how smart Shikamaru is." Naruto thought before grinning. "I wouldn't be me if I wasn't, know would I." Naruto turned to Kiba who was giving the rest of his food to Akumaru. "So Kiba you still up for that spar?"

"Hell yeah! Your going down, just me and you though. Taijutsu only." Kiba replied.

"Alright that's fine with me. If anyone else wants to join in we will be over there." Naruto explained as he walked away with Kiba.

"Come one forehead we can use the other side of the training grounds." Ino said grabbing Sakura's hand and dragged her to the other side of the training grounds.

"So let's see how good you are Shino." Sasuke said as he took out the Shogi board from the large picnic basket. "Hinata if you want to play too, just ask." Sasuke explained to the shy girl who was watching Kiba and Naruto spar.

Hinata nodded her head. "ok…I am fine…right now."

*******

Just at the edge of the training grounds hiding stealthily in the trees were Team 7, 8, and 10's senseis.

"You're team is weird, Kakashi." Asuma commented at he lit up a cigarette. "I don't think I have seen anyone like them."

"I have noticed. During the test, they teamed up on me right away. If they have had actually acted as their academy records say. Then I would have gotten the worst team.

Now it seems like I have the best team out of the three of us. I bet they could even match up against Gai's team. I haven't really figured them out yet, but I will."

"My teams not bad, all three will be great trackers someday. If they keep working in a group like this. Things might just get interesting." Kurenai replied.

"My team has good teamwork. I would expect that from genin whose parents are the Ino-Shika-Cho." Asuma explained. "Naruto just might have the right idea."

"I think we observed them long enough, let's go." Kakashi said after a few minutes.

The three Jonin nodded at each other before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

***********

**A few hours later**

After a few spars and some laughs it was beginning to get late. The sun was setting behind the trees.

"I can't believe you beat me, it's not possible. Next time the ending with be different." Kiba grumbled out to Naruto. "I am using Akumaru next time, than you won't stand a chance." Akumaru barked in agreement.

Naruto grinned, "Well Kiba how about next week. We can make this a weekly thing." Naruto turned to the others that. "What about the rest of you?"

"I am in. Sasuke's a good challenge in Shogi." Shikamaru replied. "I think I could get a little training in too. Working together is a good idea, if we learn to work well with each other than we won't have problems with missions. As troublesome as it is, I think we need to be ready for anything."

"Yeah, if Shikamaru's in, then I am in too." Choji agreed.

"There is no way I am losing to forehead again, count me in." Ino declared.

"So that's all Team 10. Now what about Team 8?" Naruto thought.

"I thought…today...was…fun. I will be…there…as well…" Hinata replied.

"It would be logical to except your invitation." Shino stated.

"Of course I am going to come too. I don't want to be left out of all the excitement." Kiba said, as Akumaru bark followed in agreement.

"Awesome, how about Sunday afternoons. Shinobi normally get that day off, in less they are on a long-term mission outside the village." Naruto explained.

"How did you know that?" Choji asked.

"If you have been in the Hokage's office enough times, then you tend to learn a few things. I see Oji-san quite a lot." Naruto replied.

"So is everyone ok with the plans?" Sasuke asked.

Everyone nodded in agreement before going their separate ways, leaving Team 7 alone.

"Wow I can't believe that went so well." Sakura said after a few minutes of silence.

"Shikamaru and Shino seemed oddly suspicious about us. Everything that we said seemed to be questioned. From what I remember, Shikamaru barely wanted to do anything." Sasuke explained.

"We are going to have to be careful around him and Shino. Otherwise we would seem too suspicious. They might say something to the Hokage. We don't need all that added another thing to our list" Naruto replied.

"Let's just go home and rest for the night. Tomorrow we can meet up early to train, before Kakashi shows up."

Sasuke and Sakura agreed to meet the next morning, before the three of them left to head home.

**********************

Naruto walked into his apartment. It was lonely here, that why he liked to spend a lot of time with the others. Naruto was sure Sasuke was probably feeling the same way.

Naruto sighed as he sat down on his bed. He need to get into contact with Kurama. He hadn't heard from the Fox at all since they have been back, it was slightly worrying him. Naruto crossed his legs and closed his eyes.

Meditating was an easier way to get into contact with him. At least as of now.

If Kurama didn't come back with them. Then he was stuck with the old Kurama, who hates his guts. Naruto breathed in deeply before exhaling. Kurama's cage appeared in front of him. Good he wouldn't have to walk through long water filled hallways.

"Kurama are you there?" Naruto called into the darkness.

Naruto waited for a few minutes, listening for anything.

"Kurama?" Naruto called out again.

This time Naruto heard deep breathing.

"Kit, Is that you?" A deep voice called out to him.

"Kurama, you came back with us!" Naruto smiled, this made everything a lot better.

"I did come back with you, but there is something you should know. As I was doing the jutsu I felt another presence at the last second." Kurama explained.

"What do you mean? Someone came back to the past with us?"

"I think so. I felt extra chakra signatures flow through your body. It was last-minute. I didn't know who it was. That's why I haven't been able to talk to you lately. It was a long trip; the jutsu took a lot out of me. Three people wouldn't have made me this tired. There had to be at least three other chakra signatures" Kurama explained.

"Well I am glad you got to come along. It helps me out. It couldn't have been an enemy; They were all dead. At least I think so. I didn't feel anyone there. Well I guess we were all low on chakra." Naruto thought as he started to pace in front of Kyuubi's cage.

"I am sorry Kit; it was so last-minute that I couldn't even tell you who it was. I was too focused on the jutsu" The nine tailed fox demon replied.

"It's alright Kurama; I think I know who it might be. I will have to talk it over with Sasuke and Sakura tomorrow." Naruto explained. "We can figure out where to go from there."

"Good idea kit, I should be able to talk to you outside your mindscape now."

"Ok, I will talk with you later than. I am exhausted already, and it's only the beginning."

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself back in his apartment. "That sure takes a load off my shoulders. Now for bed." Naruto mumbled as he started doing his evening routine. Tomorrow will be the start of Team 7's second, first day of being a Genin.

*****************

If you have any questions please let me know. :)


	4. Chapter 4

It was early the next morning when Naruto walked into training ground 7.

"Since no one is here yet, I can train on my own for a bit." Naruto said to himself, before making forty clones. "Alright I want twenty of you to work on tree climbing. The rest of you work on cutting those leaves." Naruto instructed as he pointed to a tree full of leaves.

"On it Boss!" the clones replied in unison. Once the clones began working, Naruto started to stretch out his muscles, and started to think about his conversation he had with Kurama last night.

"If it's the three I am thinking of, then for now we should be ok. I need to make sure though. If I am wrong, then it will mess up everything."

"But if I am correct, then it will be an advantage for us. This is so frustrating. What if it was an enemy?" Naruto paused in his thinking.

"I need to stop freaking out. I am making it worse than it actually is. I need to calm down." Naruto thought. "That means for now I probably shouldn't tell Sakura or Sasuke." Naruto said out loud.

"Shouldn't tell us what?" Sasuke's voice broke Naruto out of his thoughts. Naruto turned around to find Sasuke and Sakura watching him. "How long had they been there?" "I must have been too busy with my thoughts to sense them."

"Oh I was just thinking how maybe we should bring in Team Gai earlier than planned." Naruto lied. Though he was thinking about that. Naruto didn't want to stress either of them out. Since three someone's possibly had come back with them. They already had enough to deal with right now.

"Maybe we should, both Neji and Lee are really good Taijutsu users." Sakura replied. "Tenten is really good with weapons too. If I remember correctly she was pretty strong."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. "It's not a bad idea to consider. I think we should at least go a few more weeks without them. It would be too overwhelming all at once. We can bring them in sometime before the wave mission. Which is in what a couple of months?"

"Yeah, I remember it was after a captured Tora, it was like our third time that week casing that cat." Naruto replied. The three of them shivered in unison. Every genin team hated that mission.

"So what's with the clones? I thought you said you didn't want to use them to much right away?" Sasuke asked.

"I know I said that, but as everyone knows my chakra control sucks. If I can get it high enough all of my jutsu will take less chakra." Naruto explained.

"Yes, because you run out of chakra all the time." Sasuke replied sarcastically. "You have enough chakra to equal a Kage at twelve, and your chakra capacity is still growing."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I know that, it is why I can't learn certain jutsu as fast, because of my control."

"Alright guys that's enough for now. Let's just get to training before Kakashi shows up" Sakura interrupted them as she dug in her ninja pouch for a scroll.

With that in mind Team 7 trained for a few hours before Kakashi showed up. They were making a great headway in their training.

It was nearing Eight am, and the three members of Team 7 were taking a break.

"I bet you guys 10 bucks, that Kakashi will show up earlier than usual." Naruto suddenly said.

"You're on Dobe; there is no way Kakashi is showing up earlier. Why would he?" Sasuke replied.

"I am with Sasuke on this Naruto. There is no way Kakashi will be here in less than two hours. It's already been almost an hour."

A few minutes later Kakashi arrived.

"Yo! Sorry I am late a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around."

Sasuke and Sakura grumbled as they pulled out the money and handed it to Naruto.

"I always forget how extremely lucky you are with bets." Sakura mumbled.

"I should have known. That bet was so out of nowhere." Sasuke commented.

"Well now that we are all here. Let's go get our first D-ranked mission." Kakashi said as he began to lead the way, his book already out.

Sasuke and Sakura grumbled to each other all of the way to the tower. Naruto just grinned; they fell for it almost every time.

"Hey Jii-san! Iruka-sensei! Team 7 is here for our mission" Naruto shouted as he burst into the mission room.

Hiruzen chuckled at Naruto's antics. Naruto sure made everything brighter.

"Hello Naruto, have you been doing well?" Iruka greeted from his spot next to the third.

"I have, thanks for asking" Naruto replied before turning back to Hiruzen.

"Hello Naruto, I think I have a few missions for your team. Let me see, there is clearing out a garden, painting a fence, and shopping for some villagers." The third hokage read from the list of D-rank missions.

Hiruzen could have sworn he heard a long sigh from every single member of Team 7.

"We will take all three and be back later!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Now Naruto did you even ask your teammates or Kakashi if that was ok?" Iruka asked.

"Well I know Sasuke and Sakura were ok with it." Naruto turned to Kakashi. "Can we do all three missions please. We can get them done faster this way." Naruto begged.

"Alright, we can take all three of them." Kakashi replied from behind his orange book.

"Yes! Hand them over Jii-san we will get them done in no time." Naruto declared.

"Calm down Dobe." Sasuke told his best friend, as the third Hokage handed Kakashi the mission files.

"I am calm Sasuke-Teme. I know you want to get these boring missions out-of-the-way just as much as I do." Naruto replied as Team 7 was leaving the mission office.

Once they were standing outside the tower did Kakashi talk. "Ok, which one do you guys want to do first?"

"All of them, with my Kage Bunshin, then they will be done in no time." Naruto explained.

"Naruto, these missions are designed to be for teamwork. You can't just do them all yourself." Kakashi replied.

"Kakashi, out team already has good teamwork. This is a way faster method in getting them all done. If we accomplish a lot of them, we can get higher missions sooner. We all know you don't want to be stuck watching us do boring D-rank missions" Sasuke said.

"Each of us can take one, and Naruto can send clones with Sasuke and I so that we get them done. In a way we are all still working together." Sakura added.

Kakashi sighed, his team really liked to be complex."Fine, that is what we will do then." Kakashi complied.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto shouted as many Naruto's appeared. "Let's get started!"

*************************

It had been a long two weeks of boring missions and training. It became a sort of routine for team 7. Today though was another get together with the other genin they graduated with.

Everyone had already arrived and was doing their usual thing. Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino were playing Shogi. At least for now, they normally joined in with the spars after a while.

Hinata was sparring with Ino and Sakura. Sometimes they would ALL switch partners up.

Choji, Kiba and Naruto under a tree, resting after a long spar, which Naruto won, once again.

"Hey Naruto, can I ask you a question?" Kiba asked when there was a long pause in their conversation.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I just was wondering. How strong are you? I have seen you use elemental jutsu's already. My mom told me that most shinobi don't even start their element training tell at least Chunnin." Kiba explained.

"Well I guess I am not like most shinobi. I have tons of chakra." Naruto replied. "I am pretty good with Taijutsu already, and combined with my Kage Bunshin, that's already a good combination that works for me." "So I add in my elemental training to change it up."

Kiba nodded and paused for minute. "Do you think you could help me find out what my element is?" Kiba asked.

"Sure, I have a pack of chakra paper if you want to try now." Naruto answered.

"Hey Naruto, do you think I could find out what mine is too?" Choji interrupted.

"Of course you can Choji!" Naruto replied as he dug a scroll out of his pocket.

Naruto opened the scroll and applied chakra to it. A package of a cream-colored paper appeared.

"Hey anyone else want to know what their Element?" Naruto called out to the others.

"I have always wanted to know what mine is" Ino replied as she began to walk over to him with Hinata and Sakura not far behind.

"We should probably go over there too." Shikamaru stated. "They might cause mass destruction to the training grounds."

Once everyone gathered closer, Naruto handed each person a small square of paper.

"Now all you have to do is push your chakra into the paper. If it rips in half your element is wind. If is begins to burn away, then your element is fire. If it gets wet it is water. If it wrinkles your element is lightning and finally if your paper turns to dirt and crumbles away, your element is earth." Naruto explained to the genin.

"Here Naruto, Sasuke and I can demonstrate for you." Sakura said, as she lifted her chakra paper up so everyone could see it.

Sakura sent chakra through her body to the paper. After a few seconds the paper started to crumble away.

"So… you have… earth then." Hinata said, once Sakura's paper disappeared. Sakura replied yes, before nodding at Sasuke to go next.

Sasuke infused his paper with chakra. Sasuke's paper wrinkled before starting to burn away.

"If you are like me, then you might have two elements early. Most shinobi have their second element trained by the time they are jonin." Sasuke explained before turning to Naruto, to indicate that he could go next.

Naruto sent his chakra into the paper. Like it did the first time, Naruto watched his paper split in half. What shocked a few was when a few seconds later one side of the paper became wet.

"Wow, I didn't even know you had a second chakra nature. I though you just had wind." Sakura commented.

"Yeah it was a last-minute thing. I just found out recently." Naruto explained.

"I want to go next; I just know I am going to get two!" Kiba shouted as he sent chakra to the paper. A few seconds later Kiba's paper started to crumble away.

"Looks like you only got one, Dog-breath" Naruto joked once the paper fully disappeared.

"It appears Choji and I have the same as you, Kiba." Shino sated. His chakra paper was nowhere in sight. Choji looked pretty satisfied, and was now eating a bag of chips.

"I got Earth too," Choji simply said before reaching in his bag of chips.

"I want to go now!" Ino exclaimed as she sent chakra into the small paper.

Ino's paper began to get soggy. "Oh gross, that feels weird." Ino cried out as she dropped the paper.

Hinata followed suit, her paper did the same as Ino's. "I got water…as well." Hinata mumbled to the group. She was getting better at talking to everyone without shuttering.

"Ok, Shikamaru it's you turn." Naruto said, as everyone turned to the lazy Nara who had yet to do anything.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sent chakra into the square paper just like everyone else had. It was only a moment later that the paper caught on fire.

"Well that's everyone, why don't we all train in elements for a while. I have a few water scrolls on me. I know Sasuke always carries a few fire, and Sakura just got a scroll that contains earth jutsu." Naruto explained.

"That's a great idea!" Kiba shouted. "Once I get a few jutsu down, I will finally be able to kick your ass."

"I don't think you could beat Naruto, even if your element could win over his. The first few times he fought you, he didn't even use any wind jutsu's." Shino explained.

"Thanks Shino, I really appreciate the encouragement." Kiba replied sarcastically.

"Don't worry about it Kiba. I am sure one day you will be able to win against me. You are really strong too." Naruto said trying to cheer Kiba up.

"Everyone has strength and weaknesses. Even me. Like for example, I totally suck at genjutsu. The most I can do it dispel it. Another weakness I have is that I always let my emotions get the best of me. Shinobi are not supposed to show emotion in battle." "Sadly I can't help it." Naruto explained.

"That's not all either. I like to save anyone I can, even if they are my enemy at first. I like to believe I can save anyone from the darkness and bring them into the light. I will always be willing to save anyone who needs my help. Even to those who does not want my help at first."

The training grounds were quiet. All anyone could do was look at Naruto, speechless.

"I have never understood how you do that. At least I know I was never the only one" Shikamaru's said, speaking out what he was thinking.

"Indeed, you always sound inspiring when you get like that." Shino commented.

Naruto turned to them, "What do you mean? This is the first time I have said anything 'inspiring' as you say."

Both Shino and Shikamaru tensed. Naruto's eyes widened, "he was correct. He knew who it was!" Naruto grinned, now all he needed was the third person. He was glad they were alright in the end. Thought the conversation will have to wait.

"No worries, I have probably have done this before in front of you guys. I must have forgotten." Naruto replied smoothly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey! Why don't we start that training." Sakura's voice broke through the tense atmosphere, that had started to build up. Sakura quickly shared a look with Sasuke. Something was up, and they were going to find out, and soon too.

********************


	5. Chapter 5

The group of genin had been training for over two hours. Everyone was improving at a fast rate too. Naruto wondered why no one realized how much potential the Konoha 12 really had.

"If someone had tried this the first time, all of us would have been even stronger than we were the first time." Naruto thought as he watched everyone train together.

Both Shikamaru and Shino kept glancing in his direction several times throughout the two hours. It was now getting late, the sun had already begun to set and if you looked close enough you could see a few stars.

Naruto was just about to tell everyone that it was getting late, when Neji came walking into the training grounds.

"Hinata-sama, your father sent me to find you. He expected you to be home an hour ago." Neji explained when he came to a stop.

"I am sorry…Neji-nii-san" Hinata replied as she gathered her things so she could leave.

"What are you all doing here?" Neji asked a few seconds later.

"Were training together, what does it look like we are doing?" Naruto replied as he stepped in front of Neji. Naruto watched him carefully, besides Team Gai was supposed to be added to the group soon. He had to get Neji to agree somehow.

"I don't think I have ever heard of a bunch of genin training together, at least not all nine of you." Neji said, looking over Naruto.

Naruto grinned; this was perfect timing to do a little test. This would narrow down his list.

"So Neji, I heard around the village, that your team consists of the strongest genin in Konoha. Do you think your team could maybe have a little spar with me and my team?" Naruto asked the Hyuga.

"My team is pretty strong, what makes you believe that your team could match up against mine?" Neji replied, keeping his eyes on Naruto. There was something going on.

"I know what my team can do." Naruto began. "Ah, I see now, your one of those Hyuga that believes in fate. Where you think that destiny controls us, right? You don't think Team 7 can handle it. We must appear like a bunch of losers to you." Naruto added.

The way Neji replied would either prove he was right, or prove that he was wrong. Neji smirked as if he knew the game Naruto was playing.

"I don't believe in fate, an old friend of mine once told me that you could make your own path. People can choose their own destiny by their own actions."

Naruto heard a collected gasp from behind him. So the others are finally catching on. Naruto grinned, just like he thought.

"That's some friend you have, he seems like a really smart guy. I would love to meet him someday." Naruto replied with a foxy grin.

Neji chuckled, "I think you two would get along well. Your personality is very similar."

Before Naruto could reply Kiba interrupted. "I need to head home; my mom will kill me, if I stay out too long. This conversation also confuses me. So I think it's a good idea if I just go." Kiba said. Akumaru barked in agreement, the small dog wanted to go home too.

"Yeah, I better get home too; my dad will be worried if I am out too late." Ino explained. "Come on Choji you can walk me there." Ino told the chubby boy.

"Uh…sure Ino, but what about Shikamaru? Shouldn't he come with us too?" Choji asked.

"Don't worry about it Choji, I have to ask Naruto something." Shikamaru replied to his best friend.

Ino and Choji said goodbye, before leaving the training grounds to head home.

"Hinata-sama, why don't you go on ahead, I don't want your father to be angry with you." Neji told his cousin.

"Okay" Hinata replied. She knew something was going on, but at the moment the rest of them weren't allowed to know.

***************

Once Hinata had left the training grounds, Sakura turned to Naruto. "Ok, I need to know what the hell is going on, Naruto?!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. This part of the conversation was going to be troublesome.

"Well you see…. It all started when Kurama told me that he felt other chakra signatures attach to ours when we left from the future. I didn't tell you because, I thought it would have stressed you out.

I have thought about it since I found out. There was only one group that came to my mind. One that I knew could have possibly gotten there at the last second." Naruto explained. "Isn't that right?" Naruto turned to Shikamaru, Shino and Neji. "So tell me what happened."

Shikamaru sighed, "Yes it was us. We were trapped in that base for two months. Sadly, Sai died the day we broke out. He tried to hold the last remaining ninja off so we could get away." "After we escaped, the three of us went searching for you. Since the three of us were injured it took a while to travel." Shikamaru explained.

"When we finally found you it was in a war-torn battlefield. I was about to call out to you, but all of a sudden we felt a large buildup of chakra. We didn't know what you were doing, but we had to find out. So we walked up to the three of you. Your eyes were closed but the chakra was getting stronger. I don't think you could hear anything.

The three of us were holding each other up by the time we got there, we weren't at our full strength. I had a broken leg, and Shino had a few broken ribs. Shikamaru went to shake Sasuke's shoulder to get your guy's attention.

As soon as Shikamaru's hand-made contact, all of our chakra began to get sucked out. I remember blacking out after that. When I woke up I found myself in the Hyuga compound." Neji clarified.

"I also woke up in my home at the Aburame compound. I was confused at first. Until I started to think about what happened before we left. Only you Naruto could have somehow figure out a way for us to be sent back to the past." Shino said, as told his part of the story.

"At first I wasn't sure if you were actually you." Shikamaru said. "I started suspecting it was you from the future, when you invited us to the very first picnic get together." "You were also way too nice to Sasuke."

"Wow, I wasn't expecting this at all. Being back is a lot to soak in, isn't it?" Sakura finally replied.

"It was at first, but then again I am not a like Naruto, who can express his feelings easily" Shikamaru chuckled. Everyone else but Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Hey, I don't think there is anything wrong about missing everyone! I mean they all died." Naruto replied, with a serious look. His blue eyes dimmed a bit.

"We all know, Dobe. That's part of the reason we are all here in the first place." Sasuke commented. "So Hyuga, are you going to be bringing your team along next Sunday?"

"Yeah Neji, you guys should come. Since you are you from the future, it makes my job a lot easier. I don't have to knock some sense into you this time." Naruto added.

"I guess we could come, you know how Lee is. He loves to spar with anyone." Neji replied. "What has everyone been working on?"

"Well the first two times we got together, we only did a few spars. Though we did do element training today and that went really well." Naruto explained. "I figured you would probably join these three, in Shogi." Naruto pointed to Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino. "Who I like to call the supposed 'geniuses'," Naruto said as he made air quotes around geniuses.

"Supposed geniuses?" Sasuke, Shino and Neji asked in unison.

"Yeah, you know the three of you are the quiet/genius/cool one of the each team." Naruto replied. "That's what everyone else called you in the first timeline."

"Really Naruto, that's how you explain it." Sakura said. "What are the rest of us suppose to be then?"

"Oh I know" Sasuke began. "Kiba, Ino, Lee and you, Naruto, are the loud/obnoxious/hyper one of the teams."

"Yeah, and Hinata, Choji, Tenten and Sakura are the peacekeeper/nice/ not good if angered." Shikamaru added.

"That all sounds about right, it match's each one of their personality's almost perfectly." Shino commented.

"Sure they do, but I think all of you need us loud ones." Naruto replied. "Who else would be able to deal with your guy's silent nature? Only us of course, we all balance each other out."

"You are doing it again; you really must not realize that you do it." Sakura said.

"What do you mean? Do what?"

"She is talking about how you make everything sound positive. You also start going on a rant that for some reason, it causes others to pay attention to. It's only in moments like these that you don't sound stupid." "You also didn't say anything negative about anyone. You have always accepted the way you are, and how everyone else is."Sasuke answered.

"Oh, well it just happens." Naruto grinned sheepishly, as he rubbed the back of his head. It was a minute later that Naruto added, "Hey I am not stupid Sasuke-Teme!"

"Troublesome, I think we should call it a night. We can go over plans another time. I really don't want to deal with anything else right now." Shikamaru stated, before Sasuke could reply to Naruto.

"Good idea, Hinata might be a little worried if I stay out to long, after sending her ahead." Neji replied.

"Oh yeah, we meet every Sunday at One pm. In less your team is on a long-term mission." Sakura explained.

"I will see all of you at the next gathering then." Shino said before walking out of the training grounds.

Shikamaru and Neji soon followed suit a few minutes later. Once the two of them were gone, Sakura turned to Naruto.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us sooner. What if it wasn't them that had come with us? What if it was an enemy? Naruto you can't always place everything on your shoulders. We are here to help too."

"I know that, and I am sorry for not telling you guys." "I thought it would be easier not to tell you." Naruto replied.

"Its fine Dobe, don't worry about it. Let's all just go home. I don't want to deal with anything else tonight either." Sasuke said as he hid a yawn behind his hand.

The three bid each other goodbye, before leaving the training grounds just like the others had.

***********

(One week later)

"Where are we going Neji? You didn't tell us anything, beside to meet up with you." Tenten asked, as Lee and Tenten followed Neji.

"Last week, our team was invited to train with this year's graduate genin. I couldn't say no, they have great potential." Neji replied.

"OH HOW YOUTHFUL THEY SOUND! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEIR FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Lee shouted for everyone in Konoha to hear.

"Lee you need to calm down. What if they think your shouting is un-youthful?" Neji asked. Neji didn't know why he didn't try this before. It definitely made Lee calm down.

"Right, I am sorry. Where are we meeting them?" Lee replied.

"Training ground 7, they meet there every Sunday." Neji explained.

Team Gai, walked into training ground 7 a few minutes later. Everyone else was already there. Like Naruto said, Shikamaru, Shino and Sasuke were playing Shogi. Well two of them were, the other was watching.

Hinata, Sakura and Ino were talking not far away under the shade of a tree.

Naruto was sitting in the middle of the training grounds, both Kiba and Choji standing around him. They were probably trying to figure out what he was doing.

"Hey Neji! I was wondering when your team would show up." Naruto called to him, as he opened his eyes and stood up.

"Yeah, sorry we are a little late. These are my teammates Lee, and Tenten." Neji introduced. "So Naruto, do you still want out teams to spar against each other?" Neji asked.

"Sure! I am sure Sasuke and Sakura are up for it. Hey, why don't we have a team tournament? All four teams can participate." Naruto replied.

"That sounds like fun. We should do it." Kiba agreed.

"I guess, it doesn't sound too bad." Choji added.

"Hey guys do you want to do a team tournament?" Kiba asked the others.

"A team tournament? Who started this? Naruto?" Sasuke replied.

"Come on Teme, it will be fun. We can see who the strongest team is." Naruto said.

"That isn't a bad idea." Shino commented.

"Troublesome, I have a feeling this might become a big argument." Shikamaru stated.

"I think it is a YOUTHFUL idea!" Lee suddenly cried out.

"Naruto, I don't want to spar today. We had a three-for-all yesterday during training." Sakura said.

"I don't really want to either. I wanted to work on element training." Ino added.

"I…don't know…" Hinata mumbled.

"Hmmm, well if it's ok with you Tenten. Do you think you could sit out with the rest of the girls? We can do just guys from each team. Otherwise if you joined, the teams would be uneven." Naruto explained.

"I guess I could." Tenten replied as she walked over to the other girls to introduce herself.

Naruto turned back to the guy's. "Alright, how do you guys want to do the tournament?"

"Naruto, I didn't say anything about agreeing." Shikamaru replied. "I can just see the mass destruction the training ground will have when we are all done."

"Shikamaru, it is a training grounds." Neji stated.

"Troublesome, fine I will go along with this tournament thing." Shikamaru finally agreed.

"Why don't we do, Neji and lee versus Kiba and Shino as the first match? Then the second match can be Choji and Shikamaru versus Naruto and I." Sasuke suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea! Then the winners of those matches can fight each other. If they are able to continue anyways." Naruto replied.

"Troublesome, I guess this is uneatable."

"We can do it Shikamaru, don't worry." Choji said.

"I know, but it is going to be tough. Naruto and Sasuke are really strong" Shikamaru replied.

"Let's get started then, I am ready for this!" Kiba cried.

"Arff." Akumaru barked in agreement.

"YOSH! I CANNOT WAIT. OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURNS BRIGHTLY!" Lee shouted.

Naruto laughed, "This is going to be a day to remember!"

"Kiba quit shouting. We are fighting first, and I don't want you to get cocky about it. Lee and Neji have a year of training over us." Shino told his loud teammate.

"Sorry" Kiba grumbled, he didn't know why Shino had to be so serious all the time.

"Can you guy's start the tournament already! Were getting old over here!" Ino yelled at them.

Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Choji walked over to the tree line not to far from the girls. So that the sparring tournament could start.

"So, no bets?" Naruto asked turning to the others.

"No way, I learned the hard way last time. You have too good of luck. I always lose." Shikamaru replied.

"I am not betting with you either Dobe. I know how you are, and Choji I would advise you to not bet against Naruto. He is overly lucky on anything." Sasuke said.

"You guys are just jealous." Naruto replied as he turned to watch the fight.

*******************

The spar's will be next chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

Shino and Kiba stood across from Lee and Neji, in training round 7. Shino knew they were going to have a tough time. Unlike Kiba, he also knew how fast Lee was. Neji was from the future, he had no drought that Neji had trained even more than normal. Just like everyone else who came from the future had.

Kiba and Lee slid into taijutsu stances, while Shino readied his bugs. Neji activated his Byakugan before sliding into the Gentle Fist taijutsu stance. In a split second Lee was charging towards Kiba, and Neji wasn't far behind him.

Kiba blocked Lee's first punch, but barely could keep up with Lee's speed. Shino jumped back and sent out millions of bugs from his coat sleeves.

Neji Kaitened through the bugs, killing a lot of them as soon as they made contacted with his chakra barrier.

Neji knew how most of Shino's techniques worked, just like how Shino knew his. The only thing Shino could think of was to surprise Neji with the few earth element jutsu's he knew.

Kiba was starting to have a really hard time keeping up with Lee. Akumaru, who was transformed as him, would attack him Lee on one side, while he attacked from another direction. It worked at first, but Lee was just faster.

"Fang over Fang!" Kiba shouted, as he and Akumaru began to spin at a fast speed towards Lee. Lee tried to jump away from the attack. He didn't get away fast enough and was grazed in the side.

"That should have slowed him down." Kiba thought as he and Akumaru stood across from Lee.

Shino noticed that Neji's movements began to slow down a little. So his bugs had finally started taking effect to Neji's chakra reserves. Guess it was time to use some new tricks.

Neji headed for Shino, his Gental fist style was for close distances and Shino knew that, that is why Shino was keeping his distance. Shino suddenly slammed his hands to the ground, and Neji's eyes widened in surprise.

"Earth Release: Earth Pillar Prison" Two voice's shouted in unison. Both Shino and Kiba had shouted out the jutsu's name.

Neji hadn't been paying any attention to Kiba and Lee's part of the fight. "So they both knew the jutsu."

All of a sudden tons of earth pillars circled around Neji, and he noticed that there were a few earth pillars appearing in Lee's way.

"That's it, I am tired of this!" Neji said; as he used Kaiten to break through the pillars surround him.

"WOW! HOW YOUTHFUL THE TWO OF YOU ARE!" Lee shouted. "I was not expecting that at all."

Kiba was breathing hard, next to a panting Akumaru. Kiba was running out of Chakra. He had forgotten that the jutsu took a lot of chakra. It also didn't help that Kiba's chakra control wasn't very good either.

Shino wasn't fairing much better than Kiba. A good portion of his bugs had died. He didn't have as many bugs as he did in the future. "Kiba, I think it is wise for us to forfeit." Shino said a few minutes later.

"Yeah, I don't think I could go much longer." Kiba replied. "Is that ok with you two?" Kiba asked the male members of Team Gai.

"Sure, you guys were a good fight though. Maybe next time." Neji acknowledged.

"Naruto tells me that every time I lose." Kiba responded.

"YOSH! OUR SPAR WAS VERY YOUTHFUL! WE SHOULD FIGHT AGAIN SOON! SO THAT WAY WE CAN ALL SHOW OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Lee shouted.

"Sure Lee," Kiba replied with a chuckled.

The four of them turned to the others on the side lines.

"That was awesome, I can't wait until Sasuke and I fight you!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Troublesome, how do you know you two will win?" Shikamaru asked.

"That's easy; Naruto has enough chakra to fill every single one of us, and then still be ready to go. Then add me, were both quite a team when we want to be." Sasuke replied.

"You're acting way to nice Uchiha. Someone got some sense beaten into them by a certain blond ninja." Neji stated.

"Shut up, it happened to you too!" Sasuke grumbled out.

"What the heck are you guys talking about?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, are you talking about Ino or Naruto?" Tenten added.

Naruto was about to interrupt, when a voice stopped him.

"Hey Kit, what's going on?" Kurama's voice asked.

"Were just sparing with each other. Nothing big right now. Oh, Shikamaru, Neji and Shino were the three that came back with us."

"I know Kit; I can see you through your eyes and memories remember."

"Then why did you ask me what was going on?" Naruto asked.

"Just for my personal enjoyment, I don't always look through your memories. I was asleep earlier."

"Well I am going to be fighting next, but I think Sasuke and I can take down Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru will probably get lazy and want to forfeit, so he doesn't have to fight again."

"That sounds about right, well your probably should be paying attention, your spacing out. Your friends have been calling you for two minutes now."

"Oh crap, thanks a lot Kurama, I will chat with you later." Naruto said before going back to paying attention to the others.

"Hey Naruto, Naruto!" Kiba called out to him.

"What? Why are you all staring at me?" Naruto asked when he noticed everyone was watching him.

"You zoned out and didn't talk for five whole minutes." Sakura replied.

"Oh, well sorry I was thinking about something." Naruto answered as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Does it hurt?" Kiba joked.

"You know it kind of did, I had to think about all the things I have to help you with." Naruto explained.

"Can we just start our spar now?" Choji interrupted.

"Of course Choji, I am ready whenever the rest of you are." Naruto replied.

"What a drag, let's get this over with." Shikamaru mumbled as he walked towards the middle of the training ground with Choji right behind him.

"Come on Teme! We have to kick their butts before we can fight Neji and Lee." Naruto told his teammate.

Sasuke didn't answer Naruto, as he too walked towards the middle of the training grounds.

Naruto and Sasuke now stood across from Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru and Choji were used to working together. Sasuke and Naruto were going to have to be careful. After all Shikamaru was a genius, he was probably already on his twentieth strategy.

The battle was started as soon as both Sasuke and Naruto noticed Shikamaru's shadow stretch towards them. They both jumped apart and away from the shadows that were chasing them.

Naruto jumped away just as Choji came rolling towards him at a high-speed.

"Crap, Shikamaru's trying to distract us." Naruto mumbled as he moved out-of-the-way once more.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled, as twenty Naruto's appeared into existences. All of the clones ran towards Choji who had stopped rolling.

Sasuke was in a small taijutsu match with Shikamaru. If Sasuke kept the Nara from using hands signs then he couldn't trap him in shadow.

"Troublesome, I knew this battle would end up like this." Shikamaru grumbled, as he blocked another kick from Sasuke.

Shikamaru jumped away from Sasuke, only to be attacked by a few Naruto clones that were attacking from behind.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." Naruto called out the jutsu's name.

The high gust of wind bushed Choji back and into Shikamaru who had just finished off a few clones.

Shikamaru and Choji got out up quickly. Choji began to do hand signs. "

"Partial Expansion Jutsu" Choji's arms stretched out towards Sasuke and Naruto.

Sasuke hurried through hand signs, as Naruto began to do the same.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Ball Jutsu."

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu."

The fire and wind combination burst into life, soaring towards Choji's stretched out hands. As soon as Choji's eyed it coming, he brought his arms back, and jumped away with Shikamaru.

The attack soon dissipated, leaving a huge scorched mark on the ground.

"I am glad we jumped away from that, things would have gotten troublesome." Shikamaru said.

Sasuke and Naruto ran at them a few seconds later, starting a taijutsu match again. All four of them exchanging blows with one another.

It was ten minutes later that Shikamaru spoke up; he was getting tired of this.

"Ok, were forfeiting, I don't want to keep fighting the two of you. Choji and I obviously won't win. It is easily to tell that the two of you are holding back." Shikamaru said. "I also don't want to fight with Neji and Lee."

"Yeah, I am ok with forfeiting, I am getting really tired." Choji added.

Naruto shrugged, "ok I guess, I figured you would ended up forfeiting anyways."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. He was looking forward to fighting with Neji and Lee.

The four for them walked back over to the edge of the training grounds.

"I can't believe you guys give up? You could have tried harder." Ino yelled at Shikamaru and Choji.

"Ino, you weren't even out there. Do you think you could have won if you fought Naruto and Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked.

"I guess not." Ino replied as she blushed in embarrassment.

"WOW, SO YOUTHFUL! OUR SPAR WILL BE JOYOUS!" Lee exclaimed.

"Lee, calm down. We can't start right away; we are going to take a break." Naruto said.

"Ok!" Lee agreed.

The group all sat together, talking about training and missions, when all four of their sensei's appeared.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you guys doing here?" Sakura asked.

"Well, we have heard about your guys have been training together on Sundays." Kakashi replied.

"You guys do check on us, sometimes when we get together. Well not Gai, until today." Naruto stated.

"You knew we were watching you?" Kurenai asked, surprised that they were spotted.

"Of course we did, you guys don't really hide your chakra." Sasuke explained.

"So what were….you guys going…. to say?" Hinata questioned.

"We wanted to test you guys, as a group." Asuma answered.

"As a group, what do you mean?" Tenten asked.

"In one week, all twelve of are going to fight the four of us. We are going to test how well you guys fight as a group. The Third Hokage is quite interested in this." Kakashi explained.

"That's new, I haven't ever heard about this." Neji responded.

"So were being tested to see how well the twelve of us work as a team?" Shikamaru asked.

"Exactly, the hokage hasn't said anything about what happens if you do well." "Though I don't think all twelve of you can work as a team, it's never been heard before." Kakashi explained.

"I think you are wrong Kakashi, I bet the twelve of us can work well together. We might all even surprise you a little. We are a lot stronger than you think." Naruto said determined.

"I will see it when I believe it. So we will let you have one week to prepare. No missions until then. We will leave all of you alone and let you work out a strategy." Asuma added.

"IT SOUNDS LIKE A YOUTHFUL IDEA!" Lee shouted.

"Yes, Lee let your flames of youth soar!" Gai shouted back.

"THANK YOU GAI-SENSEI, IF WE CANNOT TEST OUR LIMITS, THEN I WILL DO 1000 PUSH UPS AND RUN 1000 LAMPS AROUND KONOHA!"

"THAT IS SO YOUTHFUL OF YOU LEE!" Gai shouted back.

"THANK YOU GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE"

"GAI-SENSEI"

"LEE"

"GAI-SENSEI"

"Oh my god, please tell me I am not watching this." Ino commented.

"Oh you are" Sakura replied.

The sunset background began to show behind the hugging student and sensei.

"Look away, hurry." Neji told the others. "You will be caught in it."

Everyone looked away from them just in time. They finally separated a minute later.

"Now, since that's over. We will see all of you in a week." Kakashi said, just before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The other sensei's nodding goodbye and they two left the training grounds.

"Well that was interesting." Shino spoke up first.

"This sounds like a troublesome situation." Shikamaru added.

"So we have the whole week off to train for this, this should be easy." Kiba said.

"No it isn't. They are elite jounin. We are just genin." Tenten replied. "Especially Kakashi and Gai, they are rumored to be the strongest jounin in Konoha."

"Oh! Well, all we have to do is work together." Kiba reasoned.

"Kiba, all twelve of us are a lot to work around. The four of them have an easier chance." Shikamaru explained.

"Let's work on a plan then, we need someone to lead the group. That person has to know how everyone works, and can't let it go to their head." Sasuke suggested.

"That's a good idea, but who? Tenten, Lee and I haven't worked with any of you, so if we go by your rules. All three of us are out." Neji replied.

"Shikamaru is really smart, maybe he should do it." Choji offered.

"Shikamaru isn't a bad idea." Shino acknowledged.

"Yeah, but I have someone better in mind. I may be smart, but I know one person who can think of a plan in the middle of a battle in seconds." Shikamaru replied.

"Who?" Hinata asked, for everyone.

"Naruto, I think you should lead us." Shikamaru answered.

"Naruto!?" Ino, Kiba, Tenten, Choji, Lee and Hinata asked in unison.

The others didn't have a problem with it. After all they were from the future and knew how Naruto was with battles.

"I guess I could. I have been thinking about it. If we are going to do this, then we are training all week except for the day before the match." Naruto explained. "Everyone is going to work with everyone. That way if they try to split us all up, we can always work together with anyone in the group." "I believe there is more to this fight then we actually know."

"Wow, that's actually a good idea. How did you think of it?" Kiba asked.

"Well, it's a good strategy; we have to take them by surprise. Especially if we want to at least last more than an hour fighting them off. We don't know idea if they will start easy and be holding back. There is no way they would go all out just for a test though. Neji and Tenten, I think it is a good idea if we find out your elements." Naruto explained.

"This is weird, Naruto's whole demeanor changed in an instant. I have never seen him like this." Ino whispered to Sakura.

"It happens when he is in charge of a mission. Get use to it, I think he might be leading more often. I figured you would have known this by now, considering all the get-togethers" Sakura replied to her blond friend.

Naruto pulled out a few chakra papers and handed them to Neji and Tenten. "Sorry Lee, I know you can't use chakra. Though I know you will get stronger with your Taijutsu while the others practice their elements. I will even spar with you, if you want." Naruto told the miniature Gai clone.

"It's ok, Naruto-san. I do not mind, I will be glad to spar with you." Lee replied. Naruto nodded, and turned to Neji and Tenten who were testing their element.

Neji's was sliced in half, and Tenten's paper was wrinkled up.

"Wow, I was not expecting that." Naruto replied. "Now I am not the only wind user, out of the group."

Naruto pulled out a few scrolls from hidden pockets in his jacket. He handed them to Neji.

Sasuke did the same as Naruto, but handed the scrolls he had to Tenten.

"Ok, well I guess our spar will have to be another day. We have to be prepared for this match. I am going to try to see if I can find more about it. So we all should probably get going home for the night. Tomorrow we all can meet up here at eight for training." Naruto explained to everyone.

"Alright, we will be here tomorrow then." Kiba agreed. "I have to clean the kennels for my mom anyways." With that Kiba left with Akumaru right behind him.

After Kiba left, everyone else started leaving the training grounds. All hoping they will get strong enough to team up against the jounin.

Naruto was the last one to leave the training grounds, heading towards the Hokage's office. He needed to figure out what was going on. This never happened the first time. Though the first time, none of them actually trained together like they were doing now.

***********

I hope the chapter was ok.


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto knocked at the Hokage's office door, he needed answers. The third is one of the few people who could actually give him the answers he needed.

"Come in" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice called from the other side.

Naruto opened the door, with a foxy grin. "Hey Jii, how have you been?" Naruto asked.

"I am doing well, thank you for asking, and how are you Naruto-kun?" the third asked the short blond boy.

"I am doing great Jii; I have been training a lot. Soon I will be able to get that awesome pointy hat of yours off your hands."

Hiruzen chuckled, "Maybe so Naruto, but what are you actually here for?"

"Of course he would figure it out, he is the hokage." Naruto thought as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well you see Jii; I have been inviting all of my friends to train together on Sundays. We always have a fun time." Naruto began.

The third hokage nodded at Naruto to go on.

"Today our sensei's showed up out of the blue. They told us that you wanted to test how good of teamwork we all had together. I just don't understand. I have never heard of a group that large fighting together in one team." Naruto explained.

Sarutobi cleared his throat; he should have seen this coming. After all he was having his own concerns about Naruto.

"I understand your confusion Naruto; you see your sensei's didn't know why all of you were training together one day a week. Today you even had Gai's team come along. It was just uncommon. All four top genin teams of Konoha were training together." The third replied.

"Cut the crap Jii, that's not it at all. You are just trying to distract me. If you tell me what is really going on." Naruto gulped, the others were probably going to kill him later. "Then I will share some top-secret information of my own. " Naruto responded.

The third's eyebrow rose in interest, "What could Naruto actually know, that was top-secret." Sarutobi wondered. "All right Naruto, I will tell you."

"You probably want those Anbu gone and the privacy seals up then." Naruto replied before the third could start explaining anything.

Hiruzen flicked his wrist, signaling the hidden Anbu to leave the room. Once the Anbu were gone, the third made a hand sign, to activate the privacy seals.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about Naruto." The Hokage said as he looked the boy over.

"We sure do Jii, it might take a while." Naruto replied as leaned against the wall. This would definitely take a while.

*******************

(One week later)

The Konoha 12 all stood in training ground 7. All of them were waiting for their sensei's to show up. The twelve of them had trained all week. Sure they didn't make a huge improvement; it had only been a week.

Every single one of them could work with anyone on the team. Though it was quite obvious who worked better together.

"Alright guys, today is the day we fight together against our Sensei's. They will probably not go all out in less we make them. They will probably underestimate us at first. Do not let that effect you; with all of us working together, we all should do fine." Naruto explained to the others.

"We can definitely do it!" Kiba shouted, "We all trained for this" Akumaru barked in agreement with his partner.

"This day will be youthful! If we do not win then I will do 1000 push ups and then I will climb up and down the hokage monument with boulders strapped to my back. "Lee exclaimed.

"Did you ever figure out why they wanted to test the twelve of us as a team?" Sasuke turned to Naruto.

"I did find out why, and it's actually not a bad reason. We have been training all week, so I forgot to tell you. After out spar, I will tell all of you." Naruto replied.

Everyone nodded in understanding. They were all ready for this test of teamwork. They group had gone over a few strategies for their fight.

"Which strategy are we using for this?" Hinata asked shyly. She didn't have her shudder and more, though she still spoke quietly.

"Well I have to say our best bet it to take them out one by one. Have a few of us distract the other, while the rest take on sensei at a time, until there is only one left. They will probably be using their own teamwork as well." Shikamaru answered.

"I think Gai and Kakashi are going to be out toughest opponents, and I would say Kurenai is the weakest out of the four of them. Since most of us are more combat styled fighters, we can overpower her." Neji added.

"That's true, so who should be the ones that distracts?" Choji asked.

"Our best bet is to have Naruto as a detractor; he can make tons of clones." Shino commented. The others agreed, even Naruto.

"Ok and who else? We can't have all of our heavy hitters as distractors, but the distractors have to be strong enough to keep the other three distracted." Tenten said.

"Why don't we trade out with one another?" Sakura suggested.

"Good idea Sakura." Ino replied.

"Ok, here is how we are going to do it." Shikamaru began as he wrote in the dirt so that everyone would understand.

************

It was an hour later when their sensei's showed up, but they weren't alone. A few other shinobi must have heard about this test. Naruto recognized each of them. Anko, Genma, Izumo, Kotetsu, and even Iruka were with there. A few seconds later the third hokage appeared in the training grounds.

"What's the big deal, why are there more of you? We aren't fighting all of you are we? That's a little much don't you think? Jii, you never said anything about there being others in this test." Naruto said.

"We are just here to watch, gaki." Anko replied before anyone else could.

"There is a bet going around for this." Kotetsu added.

"The odds are that the twelve of you won't last an hour." Izumo responded.

"Iruka here is the only one who bet against it. He thinks the twelve of you will win." Genma said chewing as he chewed on his senbon.

"Thanks for believing in us Iruka-sensei, we will make you proud." Naruto replied.

"Yeah, the twelve of us are better than all of you think." Sasuke bragged.

"Don't think just because we are genin, that we will lose. It's twelve versus four, even if they are jounin." Neji stated.

"Let's just to this already." Ino interrupted.

The crowed that came to watch, walked to the edge of the training grounds along with the Hokage.

"Are the twelve of you ready for this?" Kurenai asked.

"We were born ready!" Kiba shouted.

"We won't give up," Hinata added.

All twelve of them slid into different taijutsu stances, almost simultaneously. The four jounin slid into their own stances.

"Phase one." Was all Naruto said, before making a thousand shadow clones, all of them started towards all four jounin at once, as soon as they appeared. The shadow clones covered the twelve genin.

"Wow, that's amazing. To be able to make that many shadow clones and still be able to move." Genma commented on the side lines.

The other four other shinobi nodded in agreement. The hokage chuckled; this was certainly going to be a good match.

The four jounin made quick work with the shadow clones. The clones were soon all dispelled. The moment the last one disappeared was when the genin made their move.

Naruto and Sasuke headed towards Asuma, for now they needed to distract him so that he couldn't go help Kurenai.

Neji and Kiba ran towards Gai, they were in charge of distracting him while the rest fight off Kurenai. One by one they would go down.

Tenten and Hinata headed towards Kakashi, all they had to do was distract him. The two of them worked together well, because they could easily combine their attacks.

Kurenai was immediately attacked by Lee who charged at her. He was fast; she could barely keep up with him. Kurenai moved away from him as fast as she could. Once she was far enough away Kurenai started to do hand signs to cast a low-level genjutsu on the six genin that were attacking her.

Just as it was working, it was dispelled by Sakura, who came running towards her with her fist raised high once she dispelled Kurenai's genjutsu. Kurenai went to block Sakura's attack with her own hand. As soon as Sakura's fist met her hand, pain shot up Kurenai's arm.

"Where the heck, did she learn to punch like that? I feel like I am fighting with Tsunade of the Sannin." Kurenai thought.

Kurenai jumped away from Sakura, when the girl when to punch her again. When she landed she felt herself freeze. "Shikamaru" Kurenai thought. Bug's began to swarm her person, all of them draining her chakra. The bugs retreated after a few moments. She was still caught in Shikamaru's shadow.

Ino called out to Kurenai. "I would give up if I were you. Choji will charge at you as soon as I take over your mind." Ino's hands were holding her mind swap jutsu. Kurenai sighed, she knew she couldn't win. Six verse one. She had also underestimated them at first.

"Alright, I give." Kurenai replied with a sigh.

Sakura walked over to her and knocked Kurenai out, with a hit to the neck. They had to, in case it was a trick.

******************

(Meanwhile with Naruto and Sasuke)

Naruto and Sasuke were doing pretty well against Asuma. They were definitely distracting him. So far they had only fought him with taijutsu, and a few kunai and shuriken. Both Naruto and Sasuke must have surprised him, with how well they worked together. Asuma had started to have a hard time, at first.

"Sasuke combination 2," Naruto called to him.

Sasuke nodded his head and began doing hand signs along with Naruto.

"Water style: Water shock wave!" water began to appear out of thin air, and head towards Asuma's direction.

"Lightning release: Electromagnetic murder." A wave of electricity flowed out of Sasuke's hands and combined with Naruto's water jutsu.

Asuma's eyes widened, "Where the hell, did they learn that. I better fucking move. Who knows what it would do to me." Asuma quickly shunshined away from the combination attack. The jutsu hit a group of trees that were behind Asuma, before he shunshined. It knocked down three of them before it stopped.

*****************

(Meanwhile with Hinata and Tenten)

Hinata and Tenten were not doing as well as the others. Kakashi was a lot faster and knew to stay clear of Hinata. Tenten's weapon scrolls were helping a lot though. Tenten had been adding her lightning affinity into her weapons.

That shocked Kakashi the first few times it happened, though since Kakashi had a lightning affinity as well. He was easily figuring out ways to counter it. Hinata would shoot different water release techniques at him when Tenten distracted him. Though since Hinata only knew D-ranked ones and one C-ranked. It didn't slow Kakashi down that much.

Tenten hoped that they would be switching around soon, or otherwise the two of them were going to be out of the match.

***************

(With Kiba and Neji)

Kiba and Neji had been fending off with Gai's fast movements for ten minutes now. So far they had a few lucky hits, but it wasn't slowing him down much. They couldn't even use a combination jutsu right now, Gai was just moving too fast. At least one of the jounin wasn't taking it too easy on them.

"Neji, do you think we will be switching soon?" Kiba asked him as they jumped away from Gai.

"I think so; I wish we got to fight Asuma or Kakashi though. I really wanted to try a few element attacks." Neji replied.

"We aren't done yet Neji; we haven't made it to phase two yet." Kiba replied.

"Phase two!" Ino yelled, a few seconds later.

"See what I mean Neji." Kiba replied with a grin.

Naruto spammed more clones to distract the three remaining jounin. The genin quickly regrouped, while Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma dealt with clones.

"This is so fun, Asuma's kind of tired now. From the looks of all of you, a lot of you are tired to. We can make it, there is only one phase left after this." Naruto said quickly.

"You all know what to do. Let's do this." Sasuke added.

Everyone was ready to take out Asuma. It shouldn't take too long, Asuma was already tired, but sadly so were some of genin.

The clones all disappeared once again. The three jounin noticed that Kurenai was mission. They had been so distracted by the other genin, that they didn't even noticed. Maybe they were going a little over board with fighting all twelve of them.

"Don't worry about Kurenai, she was knocked out. She is over here with us." Anko shouted at them when the clones disappeared.

"You guys are doing pretty well so far." Kakashi commented.

"I agree, quite surprising." Asuma added.

"They are so youthful! There flames of youth are strong!" Gai shouted.

There weren't any more time wasted with talking. Lee, Naruto and Sakura headed towards Gai this time. Lee was the fastest out of the twelve of them. So they should be able to distract Gai long enough.

Sasuke, Neji and Ino headed for Kakashi. Neji and Sasuke was a good combination as well. They could easily keep Kakashi distracted, and maybe even make him use his Sharingan. Ino's water release could combine with Neji's wind making the water become stronger. Ino's water worked well with both Neji and Sasuke.

Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Tenten and Shino faced off against Asuma. Now the jounin wouldn't be underestimating any of them.

"I see how you took down Kurenai, you over powered her in numbers." Asuma commented as he watched all of them. He would have to be careful.

Choji came rolling towards him at a fast speed, a few minutes later. Choji was way faster now. Asuma barely got out-of-the-way in time. Just as he landed Kiba and Tenten engaged him in taijutsu. Asuma noticed that the two of them fought around each other easily. Who know they could team up so well, with only a week of practice?

All of a sudden the two of them jumped back, and he realized why when he felt the chakra presence of Hinata.

She started to strike at him, using gentle fist sort of style. Though was surprised him was that she was using it somewhat differently. Asuma blocked her as much as he could. She hit a few of his tenketsu. Asuma jumped away from her and started doing hand signs.

"Wind release: Great break through." Asuma called out the jutsu. The high-powered wind shot towards the genin.

"Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu" Shikamaru's voice rang out, shooting out a fire-ball towards Asuma. The two jutsu's clashed, and blew up when the jutsu's met. "When did he learn that? I didn't even know Shikamaru's chakra nature was fire." Asuma thought.

"Shino do you still have those few bugs on him?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes, his chakra should be depleting." Shino replied.

Shikamaru nodded his head in acknowledgement, and listened for Asuma. A few seconds later, a fire jutsu was sent at them from the smoke.

They all dodged out-of-the-way, just in time. The smoke cleared to show Asuma again. As soon as they could see him, Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru engaged him in another Taijutsu match. This fight was beginning to make them all tired. They had all been fighting for over a half hour now.

"Move" Hinata began to do hand signs.

"Water style: water fang Bullet." Hinata's water jutsu soared though the air, and towards Asuma. Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji jumped out-of-the-way, just as Hinata's jutsu was close enough.

Asuma didn't get out-of-the-way fast enough, and was pushed into a tree by the water. Asuma panted, they were really making him work. He couldn't go all out on them, this was only a test. His chakra was depleting too, because of Shino's bugs, and the few jutsu he had used so far.

"Alright, I give up. I say you pass, but you still have to fight with Gai and Kakashi. They are still going strong." Asuma said.

Shikamaru attacked his shadow to Asuma and had him walk all the way to the other shinobi that were watching the fight.

"They are some genin, aren't they?" Kurenai asked him.

"Yeah, but the battle shouldn't last much longer. Most of them are tired by now. Even though Naruto is known to have a lot of chakra, he must be running low soon."

"I don't know about that. Naruto has more chakra think Kakashi." The third hokage commented.

"You are all going to lose now; it has been almost an hour." Iruka spoke up.

Curses flew out of many mouths. "Who knew this generation was this strong." Kotetsu commented.

"This year's chunnin exams should be interesting." Izumo replied.

*******************

(With Naruto, Sakura and Lee)

With the combination of the three of them, they were giving Gai a hard time. Lee was fast as it is, and Naruto wasn't that much slower. Gai learned that Sakura can punch like Tsunade. So dodging her was a good thing.

"This is such a youthful match! I am so proud of everyone's flames of youth!" Gai shouted as blocked and attacked back.

"Thank you Gai-sensei! Your flames of youth are also glowing brightly!" Lee exclaimed.

"Why thank you Lee." Gai replied.

*********

(With Sasuke, Neji and Ino)

Kakashi couldn't believe this, he was really tempted to use his Sharingan. The three of them knew how to combine their elements together. "I don't even understand how their teamwork is this good. Neji and Sasuke both are actually working together. This just doesn't add up. In one week they all get this good in teamwork." Kakashi thought as he jumped away from Neji, who was about to strike him.

Just as Kakashi landed he had to dodge a combination of water and lightning technique from Sasuke and Ino. "This was just crazy, who came up with this idea again. Oh right, the third." Kakashi thought. "The genin are really taking this match seriously, too."

"Asuma's out!"Kiba shouted to the others.

"Kage Bunshin" Naruto cried out a few seconds later. This time there was only about a 100 clones.

The genin all met up together once more. Naruto could easily tell that most of them were exhausted at this point.

Kakashi and Gai easily beat all the clones, once they all dispelled away Naruto called for a time out. Everyone was confused, even the genin. Why was Naruto calling a time out?

"Sakura, I want you to take Ino, Kiba, Hinata, Choji and Tenten out. All of you look tired. I will not letting any of you continue. We have been fighting for over two hours now. This isn't a real life situation, so it will be ok." Naruto explained.

"But Naruto I can still fight." Kiba replied. Akumaru barked in agreement, even though Akumaru was clearly tired.

"I know you can Kiba, but you won't be able to long. I don't want you to get hurt because you are too tired, to move. People take advantage of that." Naruto answered.

"I understand that you are concerned, but we will be fine." Tenten tried to argue.

"No, Sakura is going to take out and heal any wounds you have so far. All of you made me leaded so, I am asking you do it." Naruto replied.

"You are doing that thing again." Choji commented.

"Well, I am sorry. Kurenai and Asuma are out too, so it's not like the rest of us are fighting off all four of them."

"Ok, Naruto we will go." Ino spoke up.

"Good, we will see how far we can go with this fight." Naruto grinned.

Kakashi rubbed his eyes, he swore he had just seen his sensei. Naruto also sounded so much older, like he knew what it was like to lose those you love.

"Wow, that kid sure knows how to lead a group. I swear he looked so much older just a second ago." Anko commented.

"Yes, I have noticed that he does it quite often. Ever since the last week they all had in the academy. Every time I talk to him, he gets this weird look in his eyes, like he has already seen what war is like." Iruka explained as half of the genin, made their way over to them.

***********

Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Lee, Shikamaru, and Shino stood in the middle of the training grounds facing Kakashi and Gai.

"This is quite a combination." Kakashi commented, as he looked over the genin left.

"It's a really youthful combination! If I say so myself." Gai replied to Kakashi's comment.

"Two supposed rookie of the years, a genius Nara, a quite Aburame, and the supposed dead last's. What surprised me most, is that you have Naruto as the leader. I figured one of you geniuses would have taken that spot." Kakashi analyzed.

"Naruto has this weird 'power' as we call it." Neji began.

"It affects almost every single person he meets." Shikamaru added.

"No matter who you are, he for some reason makes people want to follow him" Shino stated.

"Sadly, Naruto likes to save anyone who has a sob story. His enemies, or even his best friend for almost killing him." Sasuke explained as his eyes grew darker, along with Neji's, Shikamaru's, and Shino's.

"Hey, quit moping. This is why people like me and Lee are around. Someone has to deal with the lot of you. Can we get to the fight now. No one wants to hear about me and my crazy life." Naruto replied, before everyone here started questioning them.

Everyone seemed to brighten up. Naruto sometimes has that effect to others.

All six of them slid into taijutsu stances, ready to face against Kakashi and Gai.

"Hmm, this is quite interesting." Kakashi mumbled before lifting his hitai-ate up showing his Sharingan.

"Troublesome" Shikamaru muttered to the others.

Kakashi and Gai came to them this time, both trading blows with the six genin. All six of them worked well around each other. They would switch between Kakashi and Gai. Making their moves almost unpredictable, Kakashi was lucky that none of them were faster than him.

Shino sent insects towards Kakashi and Gai, hoping to slow them down. Kakashi who seen them coming used a small fire jutsu to kill them. Naruto created twenty more shadow clones to help distract the two jounin while the genin jumped back.

Shikamaru, Sasuke, Naruto and Neji started familiar hand signs.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough." Naruto and Neji shouted in unison.

"Fire Style: Great fire-ball jutsu." Shikamaru and Sasuke called out.

The huge steam of fire raced towards Kakashi and Gai, who just kicked away Lee, Shino and the rest of the clones.

"Oh shit" was all Kakashi said as he and Gai used body replacement to get out of the away.

Once the huge fireball dissipated, the genin were breathing hard. Half the training grounds were wrecked. There were pieces of earth missing everywhere.

"Ok, Ok I think we should call it good. All of you pass the test." Kakashi said as he pushed his forehead protector down to cover his Sharingan.

Everyone who was at the edge of the training grounds walked over to them. Iruka was grinning the whole way. After all he had won the bet.

"That was just crazy, are you all sure your genin?" Izumo asked.

"Yes, we all are. We trained all week for this, in teamwork and a few jutsu." Sasuke replied.

"I really can't wait until….." Genma covered Kotetsu's mouth.

"Were not allowed to talk about you know what." Genma whispered.

"Sorry, I forgot." Kotetsu replied.

"Ok, Jii I think the twelve of us deserve a good rest, so we should have tomorrow off." Naruto told the hokage.

"I suppose that would be a good idea. Come speak with me tomorrow sometime Naruto-kun." The third hokage said, before leaving in a swirl of leaves.

"The rest of us, have duties to do. So we will see all of you around." Genma said as he grabbed hold of Kotetsu's and Izumo's shoulders before shunshin.

"Great fight Gaki's I have a date with some dango." Anko said before leaving as well.

"I think all of you did well. I was quite worried at first, when I found out about the test. I will see you guys soon, I hope." Iruka told them.

"Thank you Iruka-sensei." The group replied in unison. Iruka left a few minutes later, mumbling about grading and new academy students.

The twelve genin, turned to their sensei's who hadn't spoken.

"I am quite surprised how well you all worked together." Kurenai spoke first. "Your strategy worked really well."

"I agree, all twelve of you knew how the other worked." Asuma commented. "It normally takes years for teamwork like that."

"So, I do think Naruto is right. All of you need some rest, I am surprised, you are not dropping to the floor, Naruto." Kakashi said.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I have a little chakra left, I should be ok until I get home to sleep like a log."

"All of you are so youthful, your flames of youth just burst out of you." Gai cried out.

"Thank you sensei!" Lee replied with a thumb up and a grin.

With that the sensei's disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Once they were gone, Naruto turned to the others.

"I will explain the test tomorrow, I am super tired right now. The rest of you don't look any better." Naruto explained.

"Ok, you want to me up around two?" Sakura asked.

"That sounds like a good time, it would be after lunch, and we could sleep in." Kiba replied.

Everyone agreed to meet the next day.

*******************

I hope you guys liked the chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto walked into the training grounds the next morning. Everyone was already there waiting for him. "They must really want to know why Hokage-Jii wanted to test us." Naruto thought as he stopped in front of the group who were all gathered together under a tree.

"What took you so long?" Ino asked.

"Ya, we have been here for hours." Kiba added, followed by a bark from Akumaru.

"Kiba, we have only been here for ten minutes." Shikamaru replied with a yawn.

"Well it felt like forever!" Kiba replied.

"So Dobe, are you going to tell us what the Third told you about our test or what?" Sasuke asked.

Everyone tuned to Naruto; they all wanted to know why.

"Yes Teme, I am going to tell all of you, it was quite surprising. It hasn't ever happened before." Naruto began.

"Ok, tell us!" Lee exclaimed.

"The third hokage wanted to test our teamwork, because there is a war coming. He explained it all to me, once I exchange some info I had. Hokage-Jii, heard from sources that Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, was planning to attack during the Chunnin exams that are being held in four months." Naruto explained.

"So he wants to strengthen all the genin?" Tenten questioned.

"Yes, Jii thinks that Orochimaru will have spies in the exam. So this year the twelve of us are for sure being entered into the chunnin exams. Our test of teamwork was designed so that we all can work together during the chunnin exams. For some reason we really caught the Hokage's eye." Naruto replied.

"This should be interesting." Neji commented.

"Alright! We will be chunnin before we know it." Ino shouted.

"It sounds troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled.

"I wasn't expecting the hokage to rely on us that much." Sakura said.

Everyone began to add in their own thoughts; the volume level began to grow louder.

"What information did you exchange with him?" Shino asked suddenly. Everyone to stop talking in an instant, and turned to Naruto once again.

"Oh uh, I may have told him how strong I really was. I told him that I stole more than just one jutsu out of the forbidden scroll. I even told him it was my idea to start this group training." Naruto explained.

Everyone nodded and accepted his answer. "The five of them will probably want to meet later to talk more." Naruto thought.

"So the next four months we should all train as hard as we can. If this war with Orochimaru is as bad as the hokage says, then we all need to be strong. So that we can protect the village" Sakura said.

"We will be the strongest group of ninja the world has ever seen!" Kiba replied.

"YOSH, OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH COUNTINUES TO GROWS EVEN STRONGER!" Lee shouted.

"So since this meeting of sorts is over, I am going to go enjoy the rest of my day off." Tenten said a few minutes later.

"That sounds like a good idea; I am going to leave too." Ino replied, as she headed towards the exit of the training grounds.

It didn't take very long for everyone else to start leaving the training grounds as well. Everyone wanted to enjoy the rest of their day off, most of them knew that life would start to get busier around the Chunnin exams start.

"We are going to have to meet up later to talk about the plan for the chunnin exams." Shikamaru said as he was getting up to leave.

"We will plan a day just for that, we want to be prepared. There is a lot to do, and there is only so much we can do until then." Sasuke replied.

"Sounds like a good idea." Neji said.

"Your mission to Wave is coming soon, is it not?" Shino asked.

"Yes, we should be going on it soon. We were gone for about a month last time. So the three of you will have to make sure the others train hard." Sakura replied.

"We can take care of it just fine." Neji answered.

"Troublesome, we are going have to really push the rest of them. Luckily everyone is stronger than we were during our first Chunnin exams." Shikamaru explained.

"Great, were counting on that. I don't want to be worried about everyone being in danger. It really helps that the three of you are from the future too." Naruto replied.

"Of course, we are always here to help." Shino stated, as everyone else nodded in agreement.

"See all of you later than." Naruto said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. The others soon followed suit, so that they could enjoy the rest of their day off.

****************

(A few days later)

"Fox in position A" Naruto called through a headset.

"Wolf in position B" Sasuke's voice said calmly.

"Rabbit in position C" Sakura's voice called out a few seconds later.

"Get ready to capture subject." A fourth voice called to them. "Go"

The three of them rushed from their hiding spots, before capturing their target.

"Red bow on the ear?" Kakashi asked a few seconds later.

"Yes, it's Tora." Sakura replied, as she watched Tora try to struggle out of Naruto's arms.

"Good, let's go to the Hokage tower." Kakashi said.

************

Team 7 stood in front of the Hokage and Iruka as they watched Tora get squished in its owner's arms. The lady paid them for their mission, before leaving the room.

"This is it. This is when we go to wave." Naruto thought as the Hokage read off a list of missions they could do next.

"No way, I don't think so Jii, we want a better mission. Team 7 can handle it were strong." Naruto said as soon as the third hokage finished reading off the missions.

"Naruto! Iruka shouted. "I know the three of you are strong, but you are Genin. Genin don't do any higher ranked missions.

"Lie, we went on tons of higher ranked missions as genin" Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto thought.

Iruka continued to explain about mission ranking and who does what missions. When he was done explaining, he found that none of them were listening.

"Do you think your team can really handle it Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked.

"Of course we can, besides don't you know, this year's genin are going to surpass all the generations from before!" Naruto replied determinedly.

The third Hokage sighed, "Kakashi do you think they are ready?"

Kakashi looked up from his book. "I think they are. They have surprised me with their strength so far. I think a C-ranked mission will be a good challenge for them."

"Alright, then I have just the mission for you." Hiruzen replied.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, they were finally getting their mission to wave.

"Send Tazuna in." The third hokage said.

An old man, who was holding a big bottle of Sake walked in.

"These brats are supposed to protect me while I build my bridge. They don't look like much. Especially that short blond one." Tazuna said pointing to Naruto.

"I have you know, I won't always be this short. I am a lot stronger than I look. You can believe what you want." Naruto replied.

The other adults in the room were very shocked by the blonds answer. They thought Naruto would try to attack him.

"Tazuna you shouldn't worry, my genin are really strong, and I am a jounin." Kakashi explained to the bridge builder before turning to his students.

"Be at the bridge in one hour." Kakashi said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

*********************

(One hour later)

The genin of team 7 stood in front of the gate with Tazuna, waiting for Kakashi.

"The others know we are leaving right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I ran into Shikamaru on my way here. He will tell the others." Sasuke replied.

"So what is the plan?" Sakura asked turning to Naruto who looked like he was deep in thought.

Naruto blinked a few times before answering them. "The demon brothers won't take long to beat. Zabuza on the other hand is a different story. I say we take him out fast. We can capture him and Haku. I can distract Kakashi with shadow clones. I will send shadow clones with Sakura to take out Haku while Sasuke and I take out Zabuza." Naruto explained.

They both nodded, "Sounds like a good plan, we can work with that for now." Sasuke replied.

Kakashi appeared in front of them a few minutes later, ready to go.

The three genin didn't say a word this time; they were too busy thinking over the plan.

"Let's head out" Kakashi said, as he began to walk out of the gates with the genin following not far behind.

*****************

Kakashi was surprised; all three of his genin were quietly talking to each other. Naruto was taking point, but he would walk backwards when he would answer Sasuke or Sakura. Sakura and Sasuke were walking on the right and left of Tazuna.

"Had they done this before? They made it seem like this was an everyday thing." Kakashi thought as he observed his students.

Tazuna didn't know what to do with this team. They were a lot quieter than he thought they were at first. They didn't even ask him any questions, at least not yet.

They were walking down the same road a few hours later, when Naruto finally spotted the puddle up ahead. He could sense the two chunnin easily. Naruto signaled Sasuke and Sakura a few seconds later. Naruto already knew Kakashi was aware of the puddle.

As soon as they passed the puddle, the demon brothers attacked.

"One down" they said in unison as they pulled the chain around Kakashi and split him into pieces.

The three genin, were already a step ahead. Sakura took a stance in front of Tazuna, in case one of the demon brothers got past Naruto or Sasuke.

Naruto and Sasuke races towards the demon brothers at a fast speed, a speed that the two demon brothers could barely see. Sasuke threw a Kunai at the chain to pin it against the tree, before the Demon brothers couldn't even begin to attack them.

It wasn't long for Sasuke and Naruto to knock them both out, and tying them up against a tree.

"You can come out know, Kakashi-sensei" Sakura called out once the Demon brothers were tied up.

Kakashi appeared a second later.

"Good work team. So Tazuna I believe you owe us so answers."

Tazuna then began to explain everything. About Gato, about the bridge and about how poor Wave was.

"Well this was raised to a B-ranked mission. If there is anyone any stronger it will be an A-ranked. We are going to…." Kakashi was cut off by Naruto.

"I don't think so Kakashi. We are going on this mission. We are strong enough, I want to help Wave. What kind of ninja are we if we go back now? What will people start saying about our village?"

"I am not going back either." Sasuke replied crossing his arms.

"I am in too, were not backing down." Sakura agreed.

Kakashi sighed, "Alright, we will go. We will have to talk about payment later."

With that Team 7 was back on the road towards Wave once more.

The team and Tazuna had just gotten off the boat that took them across the river. They would be meeting up with Zabuza very soon. Naruto signaled to Sasuke and Sakura a few minutes later when Naruto could sense Zabuza and Haku watching them.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu." Naruto suddenly cried out. Many clones appeared everywhere. Kakashi was very confused, what was going on. Kakashi noticed that both Sasuke and Sakura had disappeared, and he wasn't sure if the real Naruto was around.

Tazuna drew back towards Kakashi. "What's going on? Are we being attacked?" Tazuna asked Kakashi. There were too many Naruto clones blocking his view.

"Not anymore," Sasuke's voice called out. All of the Naruto clones all burst into smoke, disappearing. The smoke cleared out of the air, revealing his genin team.

What surprised Kakashi most was that Zabuza Momochi and a masked hunter-nin were tired together next to them. Sakura was caring Zabuza's sword, holding it against her shoulder.

"What the heck is going on?" Kakashi asked. "How could a team of genin take out Zabuza of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, and a hunter-nin?" Kakashi thought.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, nervously. "Well you see Kakashi-Sensei, we are stronger than you think, though we did take them by surprise." Naruto explained.

"They underestimated us too!" Sasuke grumbled.

"You weren't kidding Kakashi, you genin are really strong." Tazuna commented.

Kakashi was really having a hard time believing this. Yes, he did know they were stronger than the average Genin, but to take out an A-ranked missing-nin.

"What about the hunter-nin?" Kakashi asked.

"They were working together; when the three of us were fighting Zabuza the hunter-nin attacked us." Sakura explained.

Zabuza began to groan. "What happened? All I remember is being attacked by some short Konoha brats." Zabuza opened his eyes, when he realized that he was tied up.

"What the hell! Who the heck are you brats?" Zabuza asked the genin.

"Were Genin of Konoha, that's who." Naruto replied with a foxy grin.

"You're Genin? You sure don't fight like one." Zabuza mumbled.

Haku began to stir, a second later. "Zabuza-sama, what happened?"

"We were attacked and captured by genin." Zabuza growled. He was so pissed right now.

"Well, I am guessing you were here to kill Tazuna?" Kakashi asked the missing-nin.

"We were, and I still will. Right after I kill your genin." Zabuza replied.

"Gato isn't going to pay you." Naruto suddenly interrupted.

"What do you know brat?" Zabuza spat.

"That's the kind of man Gato is. From Tazuna's story, the guy's a bastard." Sasuke answered.

"I heard that missing-nin jobs require a lot of payment. With a guy that is so greedy like that. Why would he want to pay you? He probably hopes that you will end up dying while fighting us." Naruto replied.

"Why should I believe you?" Zabuza asked. These genin were quite interesting.

"That's true, why should you? How about we make a deal of sorts?" Naruto suggested.

"What kind of deal?" Zabuza asked slightly interested. Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Where is Naruto going with this?"

"In ten days, we will all meet on the bridge. If we can beat you guys again then you have to come back to Konoha with us. If you win, then you can take the money Gato owes you and leave." Naruto explain.

"Are you serious?" Kakashi and Zabuza asked in unison.

"Of course, we will let you go. If you try to attack us now, then you won't live. Do we have a deal?" Naruto asked.

Zabuza sat in thought for a few minutes. "Alright brat, I will agree with your terms. You cannot attack us either."

"But Zabuza-sama…" Haku was cut off by Zabuza.

"Shut is Haku, I make the decisions." Zabuza replied.

Sakura handed Zabuza's sword to Naruto, before cutting them lose. Kakashi was about to protest, but Sasuke stopped him.

"We know what we are doing Kakashi, we will explain it to you when we get to Tazuna's." Sasuke explained.

Naruto held Zabuza's sword out to him, once they were untied. "Oh, Sakura used a small poison to lower you chakra and slow you down. You probably won't be moving much for a few hours." Naruto explained.

Zabuza grumbled as he took his sword from Naruto. "A deal's a deal, we meet in ten days." With that Zabuza and Haku left the small clearing.

"Alright, I want an explanation right now!" Kakashi growled out as soon as Zabuza was gone.

"Calm down Kakashi-sensei, we will explain to you later. Right now we need to get to Tazuna's." Naruto replied.

"Oh, it will be explained." Kakashi replied as they made their way to Tazuna's house.

*******************

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys like the chapter! :)


	9. Chapter 9

Team 7 sat on the porch of Tazuna's home early the next morning, watching Kakashi pace back and forth. Naruto could tell that Kakashi was very frustrated with them. "He must hate not being in the loop." Naruto thought.

"Kakashi, just ask what you want to ask already." Sasuke finally said.

Kakashi stopped pacing and faced them. All three genin of Team 7 noticed the many questions Kakashi wanted to ask, just by the look he gave them.

"How? And why did you let Zabuza just go like that?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto sighed; he really didn't want to deal with this right now. He should have figured Kakashi would become very curious about their abilities and knowledge.

"Kakashi, we have been training since we were young, the three of us. We easily hid it from the villagers. After all the hiding behind a mask, fools everyone. It's one of the first things we learned about being a ninja. I found out from Hokage-Jii, about how team assignments went. From then on we worked to be on the same team." Naruto began.

"The Hokage found out about our training, start showing our true strength." Naruto added.

"So once we became genin, we wanted the other genin to be strong too. We wanted to be the strongest generation there has ever been." Sakura added.

"Well you see Kakashi-sensei we already knew Zabuza was going to ask going to attack us, it's been our plan from the beginning." Sasuke answered.

"What do you mean you already knew?" Kakashi asked, his voice rising in anger.

"The Hokage didn't want to tell you, but he already knew it wasn't a normal C-ranked mission. Were under the hokage's protection about any other questions." Naruto replied. "We can't answer anything else that revolves around this mission. You will have to talk to Hokage-Jii when we get back."

Kakashi sighed, his team was getting more and more suspicious "I guess that ends my questions for now, seeing how I have to talk to the third." "For now we can will train until the battle." Kakashi replied.

The three genin nodded, they would be ready for the fight. This time Zabuza wouldn't be underestimating them. He was an A-rank missing-nin after all. Naruto knew that after this mission, Kakashi would be everywhere.

*******************

(Seven days later)

Team Seven were gathered together in the room the boys stayed in. Kakashi was at the bridge with Tazuna and a few shadow clones of Naruto.

"So we are attacking Gato's hideout tonight right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, from what I remember Gato only had tons of bandits as guards. That should be easy to take out. We can get all of his records, and give money back to wave. We can even pay Zabuza, either way it's a win for us." Naruto explained.

"What about Kakashi? He is going to be pissed when he finds out." Sasuke replied.

"Well then he can be mad, we can tell him after we take out Gato. You know he won't let us go if we tell him before hand. Since I sent out clones earlier to look for his hideout, we already know the location and how tight security is." Naruto explained.

"That's true; we can explain it to Kakashi enough. He shouldn't be to mad at us." Sakura said.

"So we can go just after midnight. Gato won't know what hit him." Sasuke confirmed.

*********************

(Just after midnight)

Naruto sat high up in a tree, looking over a large building not far away.

"This is Fox over, no movement on my side. My clones discovered that Gato's main office/room is on the third floor. Zabuza and Haku are not here. They are in a cabin closer to wave."

"Wolf here, I don't spot anything suspicious either. I will take out the target, Fox you got the bandits. With your clones it shouldn't take long." Sasuke explained into the headset. He was clear on the other side of the building.

"This is Cat, I just seen a few bandits walk inside. I can get the records, while you guys are the distractions. Your clones said the record room was in the basement correct?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, both of you be careful. You will probably have to take out a few bandits yourself along the way." Naruto's voice replied through the headset.

"We will be fine, let's go and do this before dawn." Sasuke called.

Naruto started their plan, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu" There were Naruto clones everywhere they all headed into the building. Some already taking out bandits.

"Go" Naruto called through the headset.

With that Sasuke and Sakura headed into Gato's mansion like hideout. Sasuke headed for the third floor, easily taking out a few bandits that tried to attack him along the way.

It wasn't long until Sasuke reached Gato's office/room. Sasuke opened the door and made his way in. He could hear the loud snoring coming from the room attached to the office. Sasuke quietly searched around the office, and began to seal any documents, or record into a few scrolls.

Once done Sasuke headed for Gato. Gato was pretty greedy about his money, if he didn't have stronger security. With that Sasuke sliced Gato's head off and sealed it away in a scroll. Now that his job was done, he just had to meet the other two at the rendezvous point.

(With Sakura)

Sakura headed for the basement; almost everywhere she looked she found a Naruto clone. Though one of them could be the real Naruto.

Sakura finally made it to the basement a few minutes later, after taking out a few bandits. The basement was stocked full of file cabinets. "This is going to take a while." Sakura mumbled to herself before she began to seal away all the records and documents in the room.

(An hour later, with Sasuke and Naruto at the rendezvous point.)

"What's taking so long? There couldn't be that many files." Sasuke asked.

"Actually there is, the basement was full." Naruto replied.

"Well she better hurry it's almost 4" Sasuke explained.

Just as Sasuke said this, Sakura come walking out of a group of trees carrying a few scrolls.

"Next time, Naruto should get the files. I can't make a million copies of myself to help me." Sakura grumbled.

"Sakura I can only make like 2 thousand or something like that." Naruto replied. "That's only at my full strength too."

"Never mind, let's just go. We still have to deal with Kakashi." Sakura explained.

The two nodded in agreement before the three of them headed back to Tazuna's house.

**************

It was just past four, when the three genin entered Tazuna's home. All seemed quiet as they headed for their rooms. Just as they were up the stairs, did the boy's shared room door open. The light from the room shined into the hallway. The Shadow of Kakashi could be seen in the doorway. Yep the three of them were caught earlier then they wanted to be.

"Ugh, hey Kakashi-sensei. Did you sleep well?" Naruto asked as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"All of you inside this room, now. It seems we have more to discuss." Kakashi replied gesturing them to move into the room. He didn't want to wake anyone.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked into the room and stood against the wall near the window.

"Where have the three of you been? All of you have been gone since midnight." Kakashi asked once he shut the door.

"We took out Gato." Sakura replied.

Kakashi's eyes widened in surprise. "You what! You could have been killed. You didn't even ask me for permission to do so."

"You wouldn't have let us go." Sasuke answered.

Kakashi grumbled, "Why must I have such a complicated team?" Kakashi thought as he looked the three of them over.

"It wasn't that hard, the man was so greedy that he only had bandits as body guards. He didn't want to pay for anyone more expensive, and with my shadow clones it didn't take long at all." Naruto explained.

"I don't care if it wasn't that hard. None of you thought that I may have let you, or that I could have helped you?" Kakashi asked.

"We are sorry Kakashi-sensei, we just wanted to help wave." Sakura replied.

Kakashi sighed. "I know, I just think that you should have talked to me about it. I am you jounin sensei."

"Well, at least it won't be to take out Zabuza now. We can pay him, and still fight him. I think they would be a good asset to the village." Naruto explained. "We need to hurry back home, we don't have a lot of time until the chunnin exams. That's when everything really starts. I am worried that everything won't go as planned." Naruto thought. They had two days until their meeting with Zabuza and Haku.

"Alright, tell me how it went and then I will let the three of you rest for a few hours." Kakashi said.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura then proceeded to tell Kakashi how their mission to take out Gato went.

****************

(The next day)

Everyone was sitting at the table in the kitchen at Tazuna's house. They had one day left before their meeting with Zabuza. With Kakashi's help they would hopefully beat Zabuza and Haku.

Naruto had just finished telling a fun story about one of the Konoha 12 get together's when Inari shot up from his chair.

"Knock it off! I don't know why you can just sit there and laugh and have a good time, when Gato is going to kill you. Gato's is to strong, you don't know what it's like to have pain in your life. None of you know!

Even though Naruto knew this was coming, it still hurt to be told that he didn't know what pain felt like. He knew exactly what it was like.

Naruto shot up from the table, ready to answer the brat.

"I don't know what pain feels like?" Naruto began. "I think you are wrong! There are tons of people who are having a harder time in life. You are most definitely not the only one. There is always someone who has a sadder story. You still have your mother and your grandpa. While others may not."

"Try losing everyone you care about, because of one person that only wants power. Someone who wants to control everyone. Even trying your hardest to save them all, but couldn't. You have to be strong and always protect your precious people, no matter what. Even if it cost your life, to protect them. So stop cry about it! Oh you may think Gato's strong, but you are also wrong about that. We already killed him, I can even show you his head if you would like." Naruto shouted back at him. Inari was really making shout out too much information.

The room was silent, everyone was staring at him. Even Sasuke and Sakura. Inari finally ran out of the kitchen and towards his room.

"I am going out for some air, I will be back." Naruto said as he left the house.

"I am sorry about him, he gets worked up about things." Sakura explained a few minutes later. The silence was just too much.

"Um…it's alright, I think Inari needed to hear that." Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter replied as she left the room to finish doing the dishes.

Kakashi sighed, thanks to Naruto he now had more to think about. Naruto had sounded so truthful in his words. Like that even had actually happened.

Sasuke and Sakura stood up from the table wordlessly, leaving the room a few seconds later.

******************

Sasuke and Sakura found Inari sitting by his window seal in his room. Inari turned to them when he heard the door open.

"What do you want?" Inari asked them as they approached him.

"We wanted to tell you about Naruto." Sakura answered.

"Naruto, wasn't lying to you. We did kill Gato, and Naruto has suffered a lot in his life. Naruto is hated by many people in our home village, for something he cannot control. The villagers are rather stupid in that regard. Naruto doesn't let that get him down though. He takes the world one every day. He is probably the least selfish person I know. He likes to help anyone he can. It doesn't matter what it is, or who it is." Sasuke explained.

"I don't know how he does it some days. If it were me, I think I would have gone crazy with everything." Sakura added.

"So don't be mad at him, he was only speaking the truth." Sasuke said.

Inari nodded, "I think I understand what you are saying."

"Good, we will be going then. We have training to do." Sakura replied as Sasuke lead the way out the window.

Kakashi sighed from the doorway, his genin were definitely something.

Sakura and Sasuke appeared on the roof of Tazuna's house, where Naruto was sitting.

"You didn't have to explain anything you know." Naruto finally said after a few seconds.

"We know, you are just a hard person to explain to someone." Sakura replied as she sat down on his left.

"I was a little mean." Naruto mumbled.

"You were only speaking the truth. Why didn't you tell us that you felt like that?" Sasuke asked.

"Felt like what?" Naruto replied.

"Felt like, it was your fault that everyone died." Sakura answered.

Naruto looked up towards the moon, and sighed. "Because, it partially was my fault. I couldn't stop him, I let others suffer because of me." Naruto explained.

"It wasn't your fault! Don't blame yourself. Everyone wanted to protect you because for once, you have always protected us, or helped us. Why can't you just be selfish like everyone else?" Sasuke replied.

Naruto didn't even know how to reply to that. Sakura began to laugh, drawing the two boy's attention.

"Are we really fighting about this? Were back in the past aren't we? We are here to change the future. Something better than what it was the first time."

"Your right Sakura! We aren't going to let anyone win this time around. We have friends to help us. Were way stronger than we were before. We can do this." Naruto replied standing up.

"Good, now since that's over. Let's get to bed we have stuff to do tomorrow." Sasuke said.

*******************

(The day of battle)

Naruto made shadow clones to guard Tazuna's family. Leaving Tazuna at home would make it easier on the group to fight. They didn't want Zabuza or Haku to use anyone for leverage.

With that Team 7 made their way to the bridge, ready for their fight with Zabuza and Haku. As soon as they were close enough to the bridge, fog seemed to slowly appear. It looks like Zabuza and Haku were waiting for them, just like last time.

"About time you brats got here, I have a bone to pick with you." Zabuza's voice called to them within the mist.

The mist cleared a little, revealing the figures of Zabuza and Haku. Team 7 stopped a few feet away from them.

"I think I am going to enjoy this." Zabuza commented as he took out his sword to rest it on his shoulder. Zabuza remembered when the blond gaki stopped by a couple days ago. The blond told him a very interesting story.

"I have been looking forward to this fight as well, last time I wasn't even in the battle." Kakashi replied as he lifted his headband to show his Sharingan.

"Haku, you take the girl and the Uchiha. I got the Copy-nin and the blond." Zabuza told his apprentice.

"If that's how you want it to go." Naruto shrugged. "Oh just one more thing, Gato's dead by the way. We took down his base, and killed him. I can still give you your payment though."

"What are you serious?" Zabuza asked.

"Yep, do you want to see his head?" Naruto replied.

"Prove it."

Naruto took out the scroll with Gato's head, and unsealed it in seconds. Out popped Gato's head, it hadn't even started to decompose yet.

"You weren't kidding, who the hell are you three?" Zabuza asked. The three of them were the weirdest genin he had ever met. They were kind of exciting to be around.

"Were genin from Konoha, that's all." Sakura replied.

"You don't act like genin. At least not the ones I have ever seen" Haku replied.

"Really? Well then I guess Konoha genin are pretty special then." Sasuke replied.

Naruto sealed Gato's head back up, and took out another scroll that contained a few bags of money. Naruto unsealed a bag and then tossed it to Zabuza.

"Now that you are paid, you still want to fight?" Kakashi asked.

"A deal's a deal, your genin are quite interesting." Zabuza replied.

"Alright let's start already" Sakura said as she ran towards Haku.

"You won't beat me this time." Haku replied as he jumped away from Sakura.

"Yeah, but this time I am not alone."

Sasuke appeared behind Haku a second later, before kicking Haku across the bridge.

Zabuza faced Kakashi and Naruto, after watching Haku get kicked away. He had better pay attention to these two. They seem like the strongest of the four of them.

Just as he said this, Naruto made twenty clones. Once they appeared, they raced towards Zabuza.

Zabuza easily cut through the clones of Naruto with his sword. Just as the last group popped away. Did Zabuza have to dodge a punch from Kakashi, and fight back by blocking Kakashi's attacks with his sword.

Since Zabuza was too busy trying to block Kakashi, he failed to block Naruto's attack from behind. Thus making him lose concentrations with Kakashi for a second. In that second did Kakashi kick him in his side. Sending him a few feet away.

"If I didn't have to deal with both of you, this would be a lot easier. Since you Kakashi are on the same level as me. The Gaki throws the balance off." Zabuza commented as he swung his sword at Kakashi. Kakashi jumped away from the sword just in time.

"Wind style: Cutting whirlwind" Naruto's voice shouted a few seconds later.

A slash of wind sped towards Zabuza at a fast speed. Zabuza shifted his sword in to block him from the attack. The wind was strong enough to push him back a few feet.

Once the jutsu dissipated Zabuza checked his sword for marks. There was a pretty large gash across his sword.

"My sword! Do you know how long it takes to fix these kinds of things?" Zabuza asked.

"A while, I have a friend that is a weapon specialist. If you come to Konoha I can have her take a look at it." Naruto replied.

"We are still fighting here, Gaki." Zabuza replied.

"Oh I know." Kakashi replied from behind as he charged towards Zabuza. Zabuza jumped away as he started doing hand signs.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

The mist around the bridge began to grow heavier, Naruto could barely see two feet in front of him.

"Be careful Naruto, this is one of his signature techniques." Kakashi called out to him.

"Ok, Sensei." Naruto replied as he kept his guard up. He knew how Zabuza worked. Naruto jumped away just in time, as he caught sight of Zabuza at the last second. Zabuza's sword missed him by a hair.

Kakashi chose that moment to attack him, with a Kunai. Zabuza used his sword to block the Kunai Kakashi was holding. Naruto took that moment to attack too. Zabuza grumbled, this fight was going nowhere. Not that he minded much. He never really got the change to fight someone who was stronger than a genin lately.

Zabuza swung his sword again, and this time was able to hit Naruto in the side. Zabuza cursed to himself when the Naruto he attacked burst into smoke.

All of a sudden there was a screeching sound like chirping birds. Zabuza turned towards the noise to find Kakashi running towards him with Chidori.

"Oh shit," Zabuza cursed. Just as Zabuza was about to move out-of-the-way, Naruto appeared in front of him. Kakashi immediately stopped charging, and let his Chidori dissipate.

"What are you doing?" Zabuza and Kakashi asked in unison.

"This isn't a fight where we are killing our opponent." Naruto replied.

"I see now, well Gaki a deal's a deal. If Kakashi had actually hit me with that, then we would have lost anyways." Zabuza replied. "So it looks like we are going to Konoha with ya."

Just as Zabuza said this, Sasuke and Sakura appeared from the mist. Haku was in between them, they were holding him up.

"We are just in time than, we beat Haku as you can see." Sasuke explained.

"I am sorry Zabuza-sama" Haku replied. He wasn't wearing a mask and all three of them look a little beat up.

"Don't worry about it Haku, there will be more spars to come. We are going to Konoha; I would like to see how strong the other genin are." Zabuza explained, before turning to Naruto. "I am going to gut like a fish Gaki. I won't have to deal with Hatake and you. Spars are going to be way more fun now"

"Alright! I think it would be fun. You can come to the gatherings! There is more genin to fight with!" Naruto replied.

Zabuza grinned behind the bandages around his mouth. "You really want less genin in Konoha?" Zabuza asked.

Naruto laughed, "Oh you will be quite surprised on what us genin can do. Though maybe you shouldn't go all out on a few of them."

Zabuza shrugged, "Fine, I will find out when we get there. This bridge needs to be finished first though doesn't it?"

"Yeah, were here till then." Kakashi replied. Everyone soon headed for Tazuna's home. If they wanted the bridge to be finished than they needed the bridge builder.

*************

Team 7, and Zabuza and Haku were finally saying goodbye to Wave. With Naruto's help the bridge was finished way faster than Tazuna originally planned.

"Thank you for all you have done" Tazuna said.

"It's no problem were ninja's after all. It's our duty." Kakashi replied.

"Come visit us when you can" Inari told them.

"We will, do you think you can protect Wave now? We won't be able to now." Naruto explained to Inari.

"Yes! I will Naruto-nii-san." Inari replied with a grin.

Naruto grinned back at him and nodded. Naruto noticed that everyone else was ready to go. They were staying here too long.

"Let's go already,I am sure there is tons of security I have to go through." Zabuza told Kakashi.

"Alright, we are off then." Kakashi replied. Team 7 plus Zabuza and Haku headed across the newly built bridge. Naruto and Sakura still waving goodbye to the group of villagers.

"We have a lot to do, when we get to Konoha." Kakashi said once they finished crossing the bridge.

"No kidding." Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura said in unison. The chunnin exams were coming up fast. Things were going to get pretty busy for a while.


	10. Chapter 10

Team seven plus Zabuza and Haku were only an hour or so away from Konoha. The whole way back Naruto, Sakura and occasionally Sasuke would talk about some of the Konoha 12 get together's.

Kakashi on the other hand was in deep thought. "What was so big that his team couldn't tell him? It had to be something big, if even the Hokage was in on it. How did the hokage know how the mission was going to turn out? If he already knew then why did he still send my team?" Kakashi thought.

Kakashi was forced out of his thoughts when Naruto had shouted that they were home. Indeed they were. The gates of Konoha were only a few feet in front of them. "Finally, I might get some answers now." Kakashi thought.

"Hey Kakashi, you guys are finally back from you mission…." Kotetsu began but stopped when he caught sight of Zabuza and a boy. "Why is Zabuza Momochi with you? And who is that boy?"

Kakashi was about to reply but was cut off by Naruto. "Were taking them to see Hokage-Jii, they are going to become shinobi of the village! He should already know they are with us."

"The Hokage lets you call him Jii?" Haku asked quite shocked.

"Yep! He sure does, he like family to me. He's not the only one I have a nickname for." Naruto replied with a grin.

Izumo who had walked up to the group when he noticed Zabuza cleared his throat. "Since Kakashi is with you, then I we can let you go to the Hokage's office with him."

Kakashi nodded to the two Chunnin before leading the group towards the tower. Kakashi needed answers, and the only one who could give them to him was the Hokage.

**************************

Sarutobi sighed when Team 7 came walking into his office with Zabuza and a boy. "Naruto wasn't kidding when he told me he was bringing them to the village." The third thought.

"Hey Jii! Were back, most things went according to plan during our mission." Naruto said as soon as the door two the office was shut.

"Alright, why don't you tell me what happened." The Hokage replied.

With that Team 7 took turns telling the hokage what had happened, even taking out Gato. Zabuza and Haku even added in a little.

"You went to see Zabuza? When was that?" Sakura asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I went to see him sometime after we killed Gato. I can't exactly remember which day though." Naruto replied.

"So that's why he agreed to come to Konoha with us so easily." Sasuke commented.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, otherwise he probably wouldn't have come with us. Despite my deal with him."

Hiruzen turned to Zabuza and Haku, "Well Zabuza, since you are a missing-nin from Mist you will have to answer some questions from Ibiki, along with Haku. The two of you for now will be going on a probation period. I will discuss further information with you after you have talked with Ibiki. "

"We understand Hokage-sama" Zabuza and Haku replied in unison.

"Alright, I will send word to Ibiki, the rest of you may go." The third said.

All of Team 7 left except for Kakashi. Sarutobi knew he would have to deal with many questions from Kakashi. Right now just wasn't the time to answer them.

"Kakashi I understand that you have questions, we will speak at a later time. I am quite busy right now." Hiruzen explained.

"Ok, I will come by later than. I hope I can get some answers." Kakashi said before leaving in a swirl of leaves. "I will get the answers I need, but for now I think I will go home and sleep." Kakashi thought.

***********************

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all walked out of the Hokage tower, walking through the streets of the village.

"Today's Sunday right?" Sakura asked a few minutes later as they passed the market place. All of the older villagers they were glaring at Naruto as they passed. Sakura didn't know how Naruto dealt with it sometimes. It happened every time they walked somewhere in the village.

Sasuke ignored the glares a lot easier than Sakura did, thought some days he couldn't stand it. They didn't even know Naruto, how can they judge him like that. "Yeah, why?

"Why don't we go see if the others are at the training grounds?" Sakura suggested. "We can find out how far they have gotten."

"Sure let's do it, we have three months until the Chunnin exams, we have to make sure they are ready. Though I think warning them of Zabuza ahead of time is a good thing too." Naruto replied.

"Hn" Sasuke grunted in agreement.

"Sasuke don't start grunting like a caveman again, not many people understand you." Naruto told Sasuke.

"Shut it Dobe, most people can understand me fine. I only did it once" Sasuke replied.

"Like who Sasuke-Teme?" Naruto asked.

"Neji, Shino and Shikamaru can, not to mention you and Sakura are pretty good at knowing what I am saying. Before this time period Gaara was pretty good at interrupting what I was saying, in the few time that we talked at least." Sasuke explained.

Naruto grumbled to himself. "That's because all of you did or did it at a certain point in time. "It's like silent quite guy talk or something."

"Silent quite guy talk?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Naruto sure liked to make up names for stuff.

"Yeah! How about we call it caveman talk?" Naruto replied.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What a creative nickname." Sasuke replied sarcastically.

Sakura couldn't keep her laughter in anymore; sometimes their banter was so funny. At least she knew she wasn't the only one who thought they were amusing with their bantering. Most of the Konoha 12 had witnessed their fighting banter habits.

Naruto and Sasuke paused in their arguing when Sakura started laughing as they walked into the training grounds.

"What's so funny?" Naruto asked slightly confused.

"You two with your arguing. It's funny sometimes, though since I am around the two of you so much it does get annoying." Sakura replied.

Before Naruto or Sasuke could reply, Ino's voice cut them off.

"You're finally back! What kind of C-ranked mission did you guys go on?"

The three members of Team 7 turned to the sound of Ino's voice. She was walking towards them; Kiba was not far behind her. Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, and Shino were now just getting up from sitting down. Gai's team wasn't there though.

"We just protected a bridge builder and fought Zabuza Momochi an A-ranked missing-nin and his apprentice." Sakura replied.

"What! That doesn't sound like a C-ranked mission" Kiba said.

"It wasn't, it went up to an A-rank." Sasuke answered.

"Where's Gai's team? On a mission?" Naruto asked before another question about their mission was asked.

"Yeah, they left on a C-ranked mission a few days ago." Shikamaru answered as they walked up.

"Your mission sounds interesting, are you allowed to tell us what happened?" Shino asked.

"We can't tell you the details, but something's we can." Sasuke replied.

"Yeah, how has training gone for you guys?" Sakura asked.

"Good, I think I can actually beat you next time we spar. Hinata could beat you too, though she is a little more hesitant to hurt friends." Ino replied.

"I am sorry." Hinata mumbled quietly. She didn't want to hurt her friends, but she didn't want to disappoint them.

"It's alright Hinata! We can help you out. You will be more confident in yourself in no time." Naruto told the Hyuga.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata replied.

"So tell us about you mission then." Choji said as he munched on a bag of chips he had just pulled out of his pouch.

For the rest of the day Team 7 spent catching up with the others. The next coming months were sure going to be a lot of fun.

**************

Two months later

It was the usual Sunday when all the Konoha 12 got together. All of them were spread out around the training grounds. Some of them were going over element jutsu, while others were practicing their Taijutsu. All of them had to be as strong as possible could for the Chunnin exams in two months.

Naruto was just about to start sparing against Sasuke when a strong mist started to cover the training grounds.

"Oh here we go again." Tenten muttered as everyone got into fighting stances.

A deep chuckle was heard across the training grounds a few seconds later. "I kind of enjoy this time fighting with you Gaki's."

"It's just Zabuza this time, I don't see Haku." Neji's voice called out.

"Come on out Zabuza, you know you can't take all 12 of us out." Naruto shouted.

"That may be, but I could take you out one by one." Zabuza's voice came from behind Hinata.

Hinata swiped at Zabuza a second later with her palm. Zabuza jumped away just in time.

"That was close; you guys have been working on some things I see. So are you genin ready? I need a workout; the Copy-nin said he had to talk to the Hokage or something like that." Zabuza commented.

Zabuza had been randomly attacking the group since they had returned from Wave. He liked to call it advance training. Though Zabuza couldn't go on missions and he had to stay in the village until a week or two before the chunnin exams.

Haku was mad a chunnin and has been working in the hospital after a month. Since Haku wasn't a missing-nin he had a shorter probation period.

The first time Zabuza showed up to attack the group, he only fought against Naruto. Naruto had told the others to stay out of it. Let's just say because Naruto was fighting Zabuza alone he didn't really last very long.

The other times they fought Naruto had help. The first time Sasuke and Naruto had totally caught Zabuza by surprise. The second time Naruto and Kakashi had teamed up against Zabuza.

"Fine, I don't mind fighting you, I get better experience fighting ninja who are stronger than me." Naruto replied.

"I am in too, since you interrupted my fight with Naruto." Sasuke added.

"Yosh! I will spread my spring time of youth!" Lee shouted.

"I don't mind fighting you either, what about the rest of you?" Neji asked turning towards the others who hadn't made a decision.

Everyone nodded in agreement that they would all fight with Zabuza. Shikamaru had muttered a troublesome before agreeing.

"Good, it wouldn't be much of a challenge if I only fought some of you. Though I heard you fought all four jounin sensei's." Zabuza replied.

"We sure did, we didn't win but we beat two out four. Kakashi and Gai were harder to beat." Ino answered.

"They are known for being two of the strongest jounin in Konoha." Shino explained.

"Alright let's get this show on the road" Zabuza said before flashing thought hand signs.

"Water Style: Water dragon Jutsu"

A large dragon made of water soared through the air towards the genin. Most of the genin were hit with the water dragon because they could not get away fast enough.

Tenten who was one of the luckier ones who jumped away in time started doing hand signs once she had landed back on the ground.

"Lightning style: Lightning ball" Tenten shouted as a ball of lightning gathered in her hands and being shot towards Zabuza.

Zabuza moved out-of-the-way just in time. He sure didn't want to get hit by that. Just as Zabuza landed he was attacked by Hinata and Neji simultaneously.

"This isn't good," Zabuza muttered as he blocked one Hyuga with his sword and dodged out-of-the-way from the other one as best he could.

"Earth style: Earth Pillar Prison" Choji's voice called out. Neji and Hinata jumped out-of-the-way just in time as large rock pillars came out of the ground and surrounded Zabuza and closed him in a Rock prison.

"Nice going Choji!" Kiba commented once Zabuza was trapped in the earth prison.

"Thanks! I have been working on it for a while." Choji replied.

Before anyone could say anything Zabuza's voice shouted to them.

"Alright you Gaki's, let me out. You win this time. If it wasn't twelve against one I would have won. Next time I am bringing back up!" Zabuza yelled at them from inside the earth prison.

"I warned you, but you didn't listen did you. Most of us didn't even have to fight you this time before you lost. It's a record for us, considering last few times we were fighting against you for a couple of hours or so. Then again we don't always all fight against you." Naruto remarked.

"Shut up you blond Gaki! You just wait." Zabuza replied.

"Troublesome. Ok Sakura, why don't you let him out now? I am sick of hearing him argue with Naruto." Shikamaru replied.

"I would move as far as you can go in there." Ino suggested as Sakura began to run towards the earth prison made of rock with her Fist cocked back.

Once Sakura's fist met with the rock prison, her side of the rock prison crumbled into pieces. Zabuza was standing clear on the other side of the earth prison.

"Damn, what are you Tsunade?" Zabuza asked. Sakura may be showing the other girls basic medical ninjutsu, but Sakura was the only one who used Tsunade's type of taijutsu.

Sakura simply shrugged off his question every time he asked. Sakura walked back over to the others a few seconds later. Zabuza wasn't far behind her.

"You guys are getting good, if you guys keep at it and ended up as some special group team. You gaki's could take down anyone you wanted to in the future. It rarely happens in main hidden villages, but kind of think of it like the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Zabuza explained.

"Oh that would be so cool!" Kiba replied, Akumaru barked in agreement with him.

"If we do that we better have a kick ass name." Ino replied.

"Yosh, our spring time of youth will shine brighter than the burning sun!" Lee shouted.

"Anyway, Zabuza thanks though, it was hard to tell us that wasn't it?" Naruto asked the former missing-nin.

"It was a little." Zabuza replied truthfully. "Though, I suppose the next generation should be stronger than the ones before. Otherwise the world would probably go to hell if you guys weren't."

"I guess it would" Naruto replied, though Naruto himself would never let that happen.

"So what are you going to do now?" Sasuke asked the swordsmen.

"Probably go visit Haku, see if any jounin want to spar with me. Then at least we can fight on equal terms instead of being ganged up on by genin." Zabuza replied with a shrug. Zabuza left in a swirl of water a few minutes later after saying goodbye.

Neji turned to the others a few minutes later, "So are we going to plan for the chunnin exams? It is in a month you know."

"Yeah, I was going to bring that up. After our training, but you know Zabuza attacked." Naruto explained.

"So what pacifically do we need to talk about?" Choji asked. Many of the others nodded in agreement.

"Well all the Hokage knows is that Orochimaru will probably attack during the exams. He doesn't want to alert Orochimaru that we know. So that's where we come in." Shikamaru explained.

"Ok, but we don't know what we do in the chunnin exams." Hinata replied.

"Well, Naruto actually does know. The Hokage has been giving him hints about what to expect." Sasuke answered.

"So what do you know?" Ino asked then next question.

"The first part of the exams is a written exam where you have to look underneath the underneath." Naruto began. After all Naruto couldn't tell them what you really had to do, otherwise it would give away that he actually knew what they were supposed to do.

"Ok, what about the rest?" Tenten asked.

"The second part is a survival type. This is where it will be easier for us to help each other. From what Hokage-Jii told me, if there are too many people at the end of the second phase then it splits into four parts." Naruto replied.

"Four parts?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, its tournament round. This is a common part of the chunnin exams in every village. That's normally the last part of the chunnin exams. As I was saying if there are too many people at the end of the second round then there will be a preliminary round. Tons of people come to see the last phase of the chunnin exams." Naruto explained.

"The Hokage told you all of that?" Choji asked.

"Some of it, the other parts I figured out myself and other ninja who were dumb enough to fall for a Henge." Naruto answered.

"Ok, so we just keep on training then right? We can't really help the first part but the other part we should be able to wipe the floor with them." Kiba responded.

"I guess that's true, though don't underestimate anyone. You never know how strong certain people may be. They might be trying to trick you into believing that they are week." Naruto replied seriously. He didn't want anyone to get hurt so soon.

"Right, well since we are done talking about that I am going to head home. I have to take the late shift at the flower shop." Ino replied.

"Wow I didn't realize it was this late, I think it is a good time to call it a night." Tenten commented a few minutes later.

"Yeah, I probably should be getting home too." Kiba said.

Everyone began to leave the training grounds slowly. Soon Shikamaru, Shino, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Hinata were all that was left in the training grounds.

"Hey, we can discuss more at a later if you guys want." Sakura said. The time travelers had a lot more to talk about. With Hinata there they couldn't really talk about anything.

"I do believe that is in order, at least for some of us." Shino commented.

"Um…what else is there?" Hinata asked curiously. The six of them have been acting pretty weird for a while. Hinata knew she wasn't the only one, the others had mentioned it a time or two when the six of them were not around.

"Just final plans, I just don't want anyone to get hurt you know. I feel better if we know every step. I hope that's ok with you." Naruto replied.

"Oh, yes I understand. I guess the others aren't that concerned about it as much as you guy's seem to be. Is there something we don't know?" Hinata asked boldly.

"Gosh, Hinata sure has gotten more confident. I guess we should be expecting this." Was almost the same thought going through everyone else's head.

"That's not it Hinata. We told you guys' everything; I just need the team leaders of each team to be more aware and just thought that they would like to go over a few strategies is all. My team is just all here still." Naruto explained.

"Oh ok then, well I can go ahead of you Neji-nii-san." Hinata replied before leaving the training grounds. Hinata still thought they were trying to keep something from them still. She just didn't know what it was.

"That was close." Sakura stated.

"We will probably have to tell them at a point, they are getting more curious about us." Neji responded.

"I know what you mean; Choji and Ino have been giving me looks. It's troublesome." Shikamaru agreed.

Naruto sighed; they had a lot to do. "I think the best time would be after the chunnin exams if we tell them. There is too much going on right now."

"I agree with the Dobe. It might mess up with our teamwork." Sasuke added.

"As do I." Shino replied.

"Ok, I think Kabuto is the easiest person to kill right now. Orochimaru is a Sannin, and I don't know if he will attack before we meet up in the forest of death." Sakura told them.

"Yeah, last time it was close to the last two days that we all met up wasn't it?" Shikamaru commented.

"Something like that, but it was after you guys were attacked by Orochimaru." Neji added.

"For now let's plan to meet up at that hollow in the tree than. Shino you can tag everyone before we get into the forest. That way your team can find us. Though I probably will send up Kage Bunshin, so don't use a bug on me." Naruto explained.

"Alright, that should work. We do need to have scrolls though." Shino replied.

"Well, on your way to the meeting spot gather as many as you can. We can trade what we find if we have too. Some of my Bunshin's can gather some too." Naruto said.

"It still amazes me how many clones you can make, and still be able to fight someone." Sakura commented.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I just have a lot of chakra, you guys know that."

"What about Gaara?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh right, well I am going to be watching for him. I have to get him to like me before the third part of the chunnin exams. Or at least try. I want to help him as much as I can. I am been working on a partial seal for him, but it's not finished yet. Ero-Sannin should be in town soon. I will try to get him to look at it." Naruto explained.

"I almost forgot you were doing that." Sakura replied.

"Oh yeah, well it was like a few days before the exam that we met with them wasn't it?" Sasuke questioned.

"I remember because Konohamaru was there, and he ran off because he told Sakura…" Naruto was cut off by Sakura punching him in the head causing him to fall over.

"We are not speaking of that." Sakura grumbled.

Naruto rubbed his head as he stood back up. "Ugh, why is it always me." Naruto mumbled.

"I think we have talked enough about this for now. I need to get home." Shino said a few minutes later.

"Ok, let's all call it a night then. We only have a month left, luckily all of us are stronger than we were during our first chunnin exams." Sasuke said.

"We are aren't we; well some of our enemies should be a little easier to fight." Shikamaru agreed.

"Only some of them Shikamaru," Neji replied.

"Right, well we aren't going to start thinking negative. We can do it! We just have to believe it!" Naruto said.

The others smiled at this, leave it to Naruto to always be thinking this way. It was a little bit later that they all decided to say goodbye and head home. On the way home from the training grounds Kurama called to him.

"Hey kit, I didn't want to disturb your conversation. You tend to space out when I am talking to you." Kurama's voice greeted.

"Yeah, sorry. So what is it? I haven't talked to you lately." Naruto replied.

"Well I just wanted to let you know, that you probably won't be able to use biju mode for a few years. Your body won't be able to handle it. You probably can only use one tails worth as well." The Kyuubi explained.

"I guess that makes sense, I think that will be ok for now. I used it a lot during the war. If I get stronger by myself without it, than it could end up being my trump card of sorts." Naruto answered.

"Good thinking kit, I also think maybe I can help you with Shukaku." Kurama said.

"Really you can? What was your idea?"

"I should be able to talk to him, but you will have to do it alone with the two of you. You don't want to freak anyone out if you did it in front of people. "

"Ok, I will see what I can do then. Helping Gaara is important. Not only is he one of my closest friends, but he is a really good ally in the future." Naruto agreed. Naruto was opening his apartment door as he thought this. Since he was talking with Kurama he didn't have to deal with all the glaring villagers along the way.

He had gotten use to everyone liking and accepting him. Now he had to go back the way it was before. "I won't give up though; I will have them acknowledge me once more!" Naruto declared before making his ramen for dinner.

*************************

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys liked it. :)

The next chapter should be the start of the Chunnin exams, and the meet up with Gaara and siblings. I always like reading the Chunnin exams in time travel stories for some reason. Probably because a lot of stuff happens during them.


	11. Chapter 11

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha a few weeks later, thinking to himself. "What day was it that we met Gaara? It was so long ago I can't remember what day before the Chunin Exams it was. There are only a few days left until the first test. Kakashi proved that by giving us our entry forms this morning."

Naruto paused in his walking; Konohamaru was following him, again. It was really hard not to miss the giant square box with eye holes. Naruto grinned, "It must be today then!"

"Alright Konohamaru you guys can stop following me now." Naruto said turning around to face the square rock.

A huge puff of smoke covered the box a second later, and coughing could be heard through the smoke.

"You went overboard with the smoke bombs again." Moegi's voice called through the smoke.

Konohamaru completely ignored her statement and shouted to Naruto.

"Ha, only our Boss would be able to detect us!"

Naruto sighed, "Konohamaru you guys were in a square box with eye holes, everyone would have noticed that if it was following them. Especially if they were a ninja"

Konohamaru pouted for a split second before he came up with an idea.

"Naruto-Nii-san can you play ninja with us? Please! You said you would last time." Konohamaru asked. Udon and Moegi nodded in agreement with Konohamaru.

Before Naruto could reply he was interrupted by someone calling to him. Naruto turned around to find the genin of Team 8.

"Hey Naruto!" Kiba called to him with a grin. Akumaru barked a second later with his own greeting.

"Oh hi guys, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked. "I am pretty sure they weren't here last time around."

"We just came back from team training." Shino explained as he pushed is glasses up.

"Hey, what's going on?" Ino's voice called out.

Naruto, the Konohamaru corps and Team 8 turned to see Ino walking up to them with Sakura and the rest of Team 10.

Sakura gave him an apologetic look. "She probably didn't plan for Ino being here either." Naruto thought.

"We just bumped into each other. What are you guys doing?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, we ran into Sakura and she was looking for Naruto. So we decided to help." Ino replied.

"More like you dragged us along." Shikamaru commented with a yawn. Choji nodded in agreement with Shikamaru as he ate out of a bag of chips.

"Hey Naruto-Nii-san! We were talking to you first!" Konohamaru shouted, clearly showing his anger by the tone in his voice.

Naruto turned back to the Konohamaru corps. "Why does everyone decided to show up now?!" Naruto thought.

"Kit, the Shukaku host is near. I can sense them." Kurama's voice rang through his head.

"I know Kurama, I can sense them too." Naruto replied.

"I am sorry Konohamaru; I didn't mean to ignore you three. Let's start right now." Naruto began.

"You have a ten second head start; your goal is to keep away from me." Naruto grinned.

"What only ten seconds! We won't get that far."

"Nine."

"Eight"

"Seven" Naruto counted down.

Konohamaru's eyes widened before taking off down the street with Udon and Moegi following close behind.

The others chuckled at the scene. "Naruto hasn't acted like this in a while." Shikamaru thought. The blond ninja had dismissed his childish side since Team 7 came back from their mission in Wave.

"Six, five." Naruto murmured.

Naruto was down the street as soon as he heard the crash. It was finally time to meet Gaara and his siblings.

Kiba turned his head in that direction about the same time Naruto had. The others were confused why Naruto had stopped counting and left four seconds too early.

"Something happened." Kiba replied, before heading in the direction Naruto was going. Sakura knew exactly what had happened. She gave a glance to Shikamaru and Shino before following Kiba. The others didn't take long to follow after her as well.

***************

Naruto rounded the corner, and found exactly what he thought he would see. Kankuro was holding Konohamaru by his collar, yelling at him about bumping into people. Temari was just shaking her head at her brother from behind him.

"Hey! Let the kid go. You shouldn't be attacking the Hokage's grandson. You could start a war you know." Naruto told the sand-nin.

"Naruto-Nii-san!" Moegi and Udon, who were standing in front of Kankuro, ran towards him and the two quickly hid behind his legs.

"Why should I care?" "This kid ran into me." Kankuro grumbled.

"Kankuro just let the kid go. You are going to get us in trouble." Temari explained to her brother.

"I think you should let him go, you are outnumbered." Shikamaru's voice called from behind Naruto. Team 8, 10 and Sakura had finally caught up with him.

"Man, more leaf kids." Kankuro said.

"Fine"

Kankuro dropped Konohamaru, who immediately ran to Naruto once he got up off the ground.

"You genin don't look like much. I think you would all lose pretty easily against us." Kankuro gloated.

"I wouldn't say that if I were you." Sasuke's voice called from the top of the fence.

"You obviously don't know who you are messing with." Neji voice followed a second later. Everyone looked up to the top of the fence. Both Neji and Sasuke were standing there with their arms crossed. Lee and Tenten jumped over the fence a second later landing next to Choji and Hinata.

"Not only did Sasuke get a cool entrance again, but now Neji got one too." Naruto thought.

"I think I like this time around." Sakura thought with a smile. Last time it was only Team 7.

"They are popping out everywhere." Temari stated.

"Kankuro shut up or I will kill you" A voice called.

"Gaara." Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, Shikamaru and Shino thought.

Everyone else tensed up at the sudden killer instant. A swirl of sand appeared next to Kankuro. Revealing a red-head with a tattoo on his forehead.

"Gaara." Temari and Kankuro addressed him. They were both slightly shaking in fear.

Naruto decided it was time to intervene, the sooner he helped Gaara the better off they would be.

"You guy's must be here for the Chunin exams, were in them too. It's seems it's going to be a lot of fun this year. I hear there is a lot of strong genin participating." Naruto said without a hint of fear.

"What the heck is he doing?" Kiba, Tenten, Ino, Choji and Hinata thought.

"This guy gives off bad vibes." Choji thought referring to Gaara.

"I hope he doesn't get in a fight with them. They look strong." Hinata thought.

"We are. What are your names?" Gaara questioned.

"All of us?" Sakura asked in return.

"No, you two." Gaara replied gesturing to Neji and Sasuke.

"Isn't it better to say your name first?" Neji answered.

"I am Gaara Sabaku; these are my siblings Temari and Kankuro." Gaara answered.

"Neji Hyuga"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Why don't we get to introduce ourselves?" Lee asked.

"Were not important enough Lee. It's a silent guy thing I think." Kiba replied.

"What about Shino and Shikamaru then?" Ino asked.

"No clue then." Kiba replied.

"It's alright, that means we will be underestimated by them, then we have the advantage." Naruto replied.

"So Gaara, I have decided that we are now friends. After all, one tailed raccoons and nine tailed foxes have to stick together." Naruto explained as he gave the sand siblings a foxy grin.

"One tailed Raccoons and nine tailed foxes?" The Konoha genin except for the time travelers thought.

Kankuro and Temari caught on real quick, and stiffened a second later. Naruto was just like their brother.

"I don't want to be your friend." Gaara replied, glaring at him.

"Sorry, no take backs. Ask everyone here, they got stuck with me too." Naruto responded.

"Unforchantly." Sasuke replied with a smirk. The other Konoha genin all tried to stifle their laughter at Sasuke's words.

"Shut up Teme." Naruto replied.

"Mother wants your blood, what is your name?" Gaara asked.

A shiver went down everyone's back at his words. The Konoha genin had all quieted.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki! Don't forget it ok. Well I have things to do; I promised some future ninja that I would play with them. See you in the exams!" Naruto replied before leaving with the Konohamaru corps in a swirl of strong winds and water.

Gaara glared at the rest of the Konoha genin before leaving in a swirl of sand a second later.

"I would warn you friend. Gaara will kill him when he gets the chance." Temari told them.

"Naruto will be fine; you don't know him like we do." Sasuke replied as he started to walk away.

"Naruto wasn't lying either. Once he declares you his friend you're stuck with him. It's really not that bad though." Neji added.

"You also don't know Gaara. Gaara doesn't like anyone." Kankuro answered.

"Naruto doesn't give up on anyone, especially someone who needs help. He is always someone you can count on. Naruto will save him I am quite positive. I can never explain it myself, but Naruto has this troublesome power of sorts." Shikamaru explained lazily as if he had said this before.

"Power?" Temari questioned. "We can get a lot of information from these genin." Temari thought.

"Yes, it's hard to explain. Why you may ask? It is because Naruto makes people want to follow him, and become friends with him. He won't ever let you down." Shino explained to the sand siblings.

"Wow, I didn't know Shino thought so highly of Naruto." Kiba thought.

"Whatever, let's go Temari." Kankuro replied as he walked back the way they had come. Temari glanced back at the remaining Konoha genin before following after her brother.

"Something isn't right here; I have never seen such a huge group of genin together like that." Temari thought.

"Why were they asking us stuff about Naruto?" Choji asked once the sand siblings were gone.

"Probably for information, they didn't really get any from us. Naruto gave them information he wanted them to know." Neji explained.

"Are they spies for Orochimaru then?" Hinata asked.

"They might, or they are being used and just don't know it." Shikamaru replied.

"Enough of this talk! We will just show them what we are made of during the exams." Kiba interrupted. Akumaru barked in agreement with his owner.

"Fine, I will see the rest of you at the exams in two days. Bring everything you think you will need. I suggest packing like it's a mission outside the Village." Sakura explained before leaving the group of genin.

"I guess foreheads right, I will see you guys later" Ino said before leaving as well.

Everyone else nodded in goodbye to each other before leaving and going their separate ways.

******************

Two days later

Team 7 met up in front of the Academy at Seven a.m. Sakura turned to the boys.

"Do you think we are ready for this?"

"Were as ready as we can be, whatever happens, happens. We stay as a team and keep everyone safe." Naruto replied.

"This time we are prepared for what is to happen." Sasuke added. "We will be fine."

Sakura nodded before the three of them headed inside to start the Chunnin exams that started everything.

This time the three of them by passed the two chunin blocking the door on the second floor.

They didn't get any interruptions until they were in front of room 301. Kakashi was leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei." Sakura addressed him.

Kakashi nodded, "I can now let the three of you in, since all three of you are here. You wouldn't have gotten in if only two of you showed up." Kakashi explained.

The Genin of Team 7 nodded, for they already knew this. Not that Kakashi knew anyways.

"So I think after this exam we should have a talk. Just us," Kakashi said seriously.

"Really, what are we going to talk about?" Sasuke asked.

"Just some things, there is no need to worry about it now." Kakashi replied.

"Alright Kakashi, we will see you later than. This team has some Chunnin exams to win." Naruto said.

Kakashi nodded at them and disappeared in a swirl of leaves to let them through.

"What are we going to do about Kakashi?" Sakura asked once Kakashi was gone.

"Nothing for now, we have more things to worry about." Naruto replied. "Let's go in."

Team 7 walked into the exam room for the first test. There were tons of genin around the room. All of them had turned to them when the door opened, but now they went back to waiting or talking with their team.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, you're finally here. I thought you guys would be the first team out of us the twelve of us to get here, but you guys are the last ones." Ino called to them.

The three genin of turned towards Ino's voice, the rest of the Konoha twelve were walking towards them.

"Hey guys were back together again." Sakura greeted them.

"We are going to dominate this exam!" Kiba shouted, followed by a bark from Akumaru.

"We actually do, normally the home village of the chunnin exams has the most teams." Shikamaru explained.

"Oh." Kiba replied as he scratched the back of his head.

"Hey, you rookies shouldn't be so loud. You are just attracting attention to yourselves. That's not a good thing for the Chunnin exams." A voice addressed them.

The time-travelers of the Konoha 12 knew exactly who the voice belonged too. He cause a lot of problems for them.

"Who the heck are you?" Ino asked.

"I am Kabuto Yakushi, nice to meet all of you." The older teen with gray hair pulled into a low pony tail replied.

"Who said we weren't trying to attract attention?" Naruto suddenly asked him.

"Oh, well I guess that is a way to do it. How about I give you rookies some inside information? After all this is my seventh time taking the chunnin exams" Kabuto suggested.

"Your seventh time? You must suck then." Kiba replied.

"Really? What kind of information?" Choji asked interrupting Kiba.

"I can give you all kinds of information, like how many teams from what village are here." Kabuto replied.

"Even people who are taking the exam for the first time?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course." Kabuto replied.

"How did you get that anyways?" Shino asked.

"I have just seen a lot of the people here before." Kabuto replied quickly. "Why are they asking me so many questions?" Kabuto thought. "Do they know?"

"So are you going to tell us that information?" Sakura asked.

"Oh right, 30 teams from sand, 21 from Rain, 15 from Grass, 12 Waterfall, 3 from Sound, and 72 from the Leaf." Kabuto said after sending chakra to one of his ninja info cards that showed a map of the Elemental nations.

"Sound? I have never heard of that village before." Shikamaru said.

"Yes, they are a new village; there isn't a lot of information about them.

"So you even have information on us too right?" Neji asked.

"I do, do you need information on someone?" Kabuto questioned.

"Yeah, I want information for Naruto Uzumaki." Kiba interrupted Neji.

"This is not good." Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, Shikamaru, Shino thought.

Kabuto pulled out a card and sent chakra to it. "Hmmm, this is quite interesting." Kabuto commented out loud before telling them what was on the card.

"Naruto Uzumaki from Team 7 of the village hidden in the leaves, his teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Their jonin sensei is Kakashi Hatake. They have been on 15 D ranks, and one A-rank mission that was originally a C-rank mission." Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu are really high, Genjutsu is low average. Chakra stamina is really high too." Kabuto explained. "Though there is some information missing from this card."

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked.

"I am not sure, there is just something missing from it." Kabuto replied.

"What is going on, something isn't right?" Kabuto thought looking over the card again.

Almost every single person from the Konoha 12 sensed someone move at a fast pace towards them. Kabuto suddenly jumped back as one of the Sound ninja attacked him. A second later Kabuto's glasses broke and Kabuto was trying to catch his breath.

"If I didn't know he was working with Orochimaru already, I would probably still believe that he was a true leaf shinobi." Sasuke thought as he watched Kabuto cough and catch his breath.

The room's tense atmosphere rose higher, everyone was staring in their direction. Just like the first time they took the Chunnin exams. Luckily the twelve of them were a lot stronger and more confident in themselves.

A cloud of smoke appeared in the front of the room a minute later. Once the smoke cleared it reviled Ibiki, and a group of chunnin. Most of the Konoha 12 recognized Izumo and Kotetsu out of the group of chunin.

"Alright you sissies, let's get this written exam started! I am Ibiki Morino" Ibiki shouted so that the everyone in the room could hear. There were a few grumbled in reply, before Ibiki began to talk again.

"You need to pick a number and find you seat, I will pass out the test once everyone is in their seat." Ibiki added. Once everyone was in their seats, the chunnin began passing out the exam while Ibiki explained the rules of the test.

Once he finished explaining the test, he let the group of genin begin the test. They had 45 minutes to get it done.

Naruto sighed to himself, he was so glad he knew the true meaning of the test this time. Naruto looked over the questions once more, "I still don't know most of these questions." Naruto thought.

Instead of writing answers on to the test, Naruto decided it would be a good idea to write Hokage-Jii a message. Naruto made sure to use code words for specific things.

The Hokage may know they were from the future, but he didn't know the details of what happened the first time. After all who wants to tell someone they die. Though Naruto had a hunch that the third already knew something was going to go wrong.

It wasn't long until the time ran out, and Ibiki began talking about the tenth question.

"Ok, pencils down, I am going to give the choice. You can take the tenth question and risk getting it wrong. If you get the question wrong you will be disqualified and you won't be able to participate in the Chunin exams ever again. If you leave you can try again next time, but your whole team will leave as well." Ibiki explained, face blank of any emotion.

The room was soon filled with many voices talking at once. Suddenly shinobi stated to give up one by one with their teams. It was narrowing down really fast.

"I am going to have to shout again, we need more teams so there is more scrolls to collect." Naruto thought before standing up and slamming his hand down on to the desk in front of him. This caused everyone to turn their attention to him.

"I am not scared! Give me the question, I believe in my teammates I am not going to quit. It doesn't matter if I get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life. I will become Hokage no matter what and protect my precious people." Naruto proclaimed to everyone in the room.

Many people's confidence perked up at Naruto's words. Many people told him he had a way with them. The room sat in silence for a few minutes, waiting to find out what would happen next.

"I see, so is there anyone else who would like to quit?" Ibiki asked, as he searched the room. No one answered him. Naruto's words had strengthened their confidence.

"Well all of you here…pass" Ibiki finally replied. "It seems like this generation of ninja has quite the potential" Ibiki thought.

"What! We just pass like that" Temari shouted as she stood up.

Ibiki nodded before explaining the test and showing everyone his head full of scars. Just as Ibiki finished putting his bandanna back on, someone came crashing through the window. Anko appeared in the front of the classroom in front of a sign.

"I am Anko Mitarashi your second proctor for the chunnin exams!" The violet haired women shouted. Ibiki sighed, she was early again.

"Your early again, Anko." Ibiki told the women.

"Ibiki why are there so many left? Are you getting soft?" Anko asked the lead interrogator of the leaf village as she looked around the room. She ignored his earlier statement about being early.

"Or, these batches of genin are just really strong this year." Ibiki answered.

"Well you do have the twelve Konoha genin that fought off Kakashi, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai." Anko replied as she spotted Team 7, 8, 9, and 10.

"I heard about that" Ibiki confirmed. "This year will definitely be quite interesting."

"It will be no problem cutting this batch less than half. Talk to your jounin sensei to find the next location, I will see you all bright in early tomorrow morning." Anko explained before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

**************************

(Next morning, training ground 44)

The Konoha 12 had all met up early that morning to head towards the forest of death together. They were finalizing a few plans on their way there.

They all dropped down from the trees just before the gates of the Forest of Death. Most of the genin from the day before were already there, even Anko. She was sitting on top of the gate eating a Dango.

It wasn't long after until Anko started to explain the rules for the second part of the Chunnin exams. Once she was done Naruto turned to the others.

"We meet at the hollow tree, each of you have a map of the forest. I mapped it out a few days ago. Hokage-Jii let it slip that we were coming here for the second part. On the fourth day, head to the tower if we are not all there. Don't forget to pick up as many scrolls along the way. It will be easier for us if we have extra; it's also less competition for later." Naruto explained.

They all nodded in understanding, they had worked most of this plan earlier. "Why wouldn't someone be there by the fourth day?" Hinata asked.

"It is in case of our teams are attacked by a strong team. It would hold everyone back if nine of us were waiting for one team. At least some of us have to make it to the last round." Sasuke replied.

"That makes sense." Tenten commented.

"Yosh! Our flames of youth burn ever so brightly!" Lee shouted in excitement.

"All of you need to be at your gates, quit standing around!" Anko shouted at everyone.

"Good luck, see you soon" Sakura said.

"You too." Many voices replied in unison.

***********************

All of the teams were now standing at each gate waiting to be let into the forest of death.

Anko's voice suddenly shouted through speakers that were set up around the outside of the Forest of Death.

"Alright Maggots get in there already!" The gates opened all around the forest letting all the genin inside.

As soon as the gates were open and Team 7 walked in Naruto spammed hundreds of clones.

"Let's do this!" Naruto told his teammates as they dashed further into the forest of death.

*******************

It was a day later and Team's 8, 9, and 10 were already at the hollow in the tree. Each team had gotten one extra scroll along the way.

"I wonder how long it will take Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura to get here." Choji asked munching on some chips.

"I thought they would be one of the first ones here actually. Naruto seemed really serious about getting here as fast as we could." Kiba replied.

"That is because he was" Neji stated.

"Oh, so what was with that Kabuto guy?" Kiba asked.

"He was bad news, couldn't you tell? He was very troublesome. There is no way someone could have that much information on people, even if he took the exam 7 times." Shikamaru explained.

"So he is a spy." Ino said.

"We believe so; I hope Team 7 gets here soon." Shino answered.

"You probably won't be seeing them that soon." An unfamiliar voice called out to them.

*************************

Team 7 raced through the trees, they had collected quite a few scrolls with Naruto's clones. Naruto was also keeping an eye on other teams with his clones. There was no sign of Orochimaru yet. That was definitely worrying the three genin.

"The others are probably waiting for us." Sakura suddenly said as they jumped from tree to tree.

"They are I had a clone pass by them earlier this morning. I thought Orochimaru was going to find us by now. I didn't want to in danger them; I wanted us to deal with Orochimaru." Naruto explained.

"I don't think Shikamaru, Shino and Neji are going to be too happy about that." Sasuke commented.

"I know….hey someone is coming in this direction." Naruto told them.

A few minutes later the Sound Team came through the trees.

"What are they doing here? It's too early for them to be attacking us?" all three members of Team 7 thought.

***********************

I hope all of you liked it. :)


	12. Chapter 12

The group of nine genin looked up from the ground; standing in a tree was a female Grass-nin. None of the genin had sensed her presence at all. Who knew how long she had been there.

Killer instinct poured over the group, causing them to all freeze in place.

"What do you mean?" Neji managed to ask.

"Ku Ku Ku Ku, they are a little busy right now." The creepy Grass-nin said.

Shikamaru's brain was flowing with a million different scenarios at the moment. Who knows what could have happened with Team 7, but first they had to get out of here. This whole thing didn't make sense.

Shikamaru shared a glance with Neji and Shino, a few seconds later the killer instinct was pushed away from the genin.

"What did you do to them? And what do you want with us." Kiba asked as he patted Akumaru, who was shivering inside of his coat.

"Well you see the only way for me to get Sasuke-kun, is to kill all of you. My spy network gave me a lot of information about the twelve of you. I believe that the twelve of you will become a strong thorn in my side in the future. So I decided to get rid of you early." The girl said.

"Who are you?! And Sasuke isn't yours!" Ino replied.

"My identity is no importance, nor my reason for taking Sasuke away from Konoha." The girl answered.

"You're Orochimaru." Shino stated.

"Ku Ku, you are quite smart. How did you know?" Orochimaru asked.

"You are not the only one with a spy network. Why would getting rid of us, make it easier to get Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked. "This is getting way to troublesome for me; I can only stall for so long. They better get here fast; there is no way the nine of us can take out a Sannin, at least not as of right now."

***********************

(With Team 7)

Team 7 jumped into a clearing just as the Sounds team landed on the other side of the clearing.

"We finally found the three of you." Kin stated a second later.

"What do you want from us?" Sakura asked playing along, the three-time travelers knew exactly why they were here. Though for some reason they attacked too early.

"We just want to test out your guy's strength, you don't look very strong." Zaku replied.

"I guess you will have to find out." Sasuke smirked smugly.

"We need to hurry up, a clone of mine just popped. Orochimaru is attacking the others, they aren't doing so well. Ino, Choji, Tenten, Hinata are knocked out and injured. Everyone else is running out of chakra they won't be able to last much longer." Naruto explained quickly.

They couldn't lose anyone, especially this early. Fighting the Sound genin shouldn't take too long; after all the three members of Team 7 were the strongest out of the Konoha 12.

"Let's get this over with Konoha brats." Dosu called as he shot a strong gust of wind at them, right as Kin threw a cluster of kunai. Team 7 jumped apart and as soon as they landed back on the ground they attacked.

Sakura appeared in front of Kin a second later with her fist cocked back. Kin's eyes widened, she didn't have time to block Sakura. Sakura's punch made Kin fly back into the trees behind her.

Kin slowly got up from the ground. This was supposed to be easy, it didn't seem that way. She only heard of Tsunade of the Sannin with strength like that. She wasn't going to last against Sakura if she was going to get his like that.

Kin reached into her pouch before launching a multitude of senbon towards Sakura who was running at her again. Sakura who remembered fighting Kin from the first time around deflected and dodged every senbon that was being thrown at her. She knew about Kin's shadow senbon.

"I think it's time to get this over with." Sakura began as she flashed through hand signs. "Earth Style: Stone Spikes" Earth spikes around and underneath Kin. Kin tried to dodge as many as she could but she got hit by quite a few of them. She was already losing blood.

Sakura disappeared from view and a minute later Kin was being dragged into the ground. Her head was now the only thing that appeared above ground. "Damn it!" Kin cursed as Sakura appeared in front of her with her hand on her hip.

************************

Sasuke appeared in front of Zaku, and entered a small Taijutsu match. Sasuke was a lot better than Zaku was. Zaku shot air from the tubes in his arms at Sasuke as he jumped away from the Uchiha.

Sasuke was pushed back from the high frequency of wind and sound. Sasuke decided it was time end this fight. They didn't have time to mess around they still had to fight off Orochimaru.

Sasuke rushed towards Zaku again, after kicking Zaku in the side and sending him flying Sasuke raced through hand signs.

"Lightning Release: Lightning ball" A ball of lightning gathered in Sasuke's hands before launching at Zaku at a fast pace. Zaku was just getting up from Sasuke's kick and he couldn't get away fast enough. A second later Zaku was knocked unconscious.

*********************

Naruto knew for sure they had to hurry, Sasuke and Sakura didn't see the memories of his clones. His clone had popped after being hit by Orochimaru himself.

Though it was also probably a trap, Orochimaru had to know they would be on their way. Naruto didn't know why all the plans were different on Orochimaru's end. Naruto didn't like not knowing.

Dosu was knocked out after a short taijutsu fight. He after all was fighting Naruto. The blond knew he had to get through Dosu to save and help his friends.

Nothing would get in his way; all of Naruto's friends knew this. Well anyone from the future would. Naruto would do anything to help his friends.

The three genin of team 7 shared a glance before they were on the move again. They were heading straight to the others; they had no time to lose.

Naruto made three Kage Bunshin and henged two of them into Sasuke and Sakura.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked, curious of Naruto's actions.

"Kabuto's coming our way, I want to deal with Orochimaru first. He is currently fighting our friends. As much as I hate Kabuto, we don't have time to be at two different places." Naruto explained.

"Are you sure? Kabuto does cause a lot of problems in the future." Sasuke replied.

Naruto sighed, "I know he does, but Orochimaru is strong and we aren't strong enough to win against Orochimaru.

Splitting up would do worse damage on the person that goes after Orochimaru. If we were at our level from before we time traveled then we wouldn't have a problem." Naruto answered.

Sasuke nodded to him in agreement.

"If you think that is best." Sakura replied.

The three genin rushed through the trees of the Forest of Death. They were almost there.

A second later they stopped just before the clearing. The three-time travelers looked over the clearing. Almost every single one of their friends were sitting up or lying across the clearing breathing heavily.

Lee and Neji were the only two standing up. Though the two of them were breathing hard, and they were slightly shaking.

Orochimaru stood at the edge of the clearing chuckling. It was time Team 7 dropped in.

In a flash Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura appeared in front of their friends blocking Orochimaru's view of some of them.

"Kukukukuku Well, well glad you three could join the party, Kuku." Orochimaru chuckled. If he was surprised by their appearance he didn't show it.

"What are you doing here Orochimaru?" Naruto asked. He wanted to get over with this part of the exam already.

"Hmmm, straight to the point I see. I guess I will have to tell you then. I am here for Sasuke-kun."

"Well you can't have him." Sakura spoke up. Sakura really didn't want to have to lose Sasuke again.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke replied.

"I can give you power Sasuke-kun, way more than these pathetic friends of yours. Though all of you are above genin level which is certainly interesting. Friends will not help you kill your brother." Orochimaru tried to persuade Sasuke.

Before Sasuke could even reply, Naruto interrupted.

"You don't know Sasuke, do you? Power doesn't make you strong; protecting your precious people makes you strong." Naruto shouted.

"I don't want to kill my brother. Naruto is right, you don't know me at all." Sasuke added.

"Why did you go after our friends if you wanted Sasuke?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"I had to show Sasuke the true meaning of power. Friends don't do a thing to your strength. I had to get rid of you lot somehow, this kills two birds with one stone." Orochimaru explained.

"Now I am tired of all this talking, I am going to leave a little present behind." Orochimaru added.

The snake Sannin sent out snakes everywhere, all of the snake's were heading straight towards the genin.

Naruto gave a glance to Sasuke and Sakura before they all began to attack too.

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough." Naruto shouted, as a large gust of wind shot towards Orochimaru.

The snake Sannin didn't even flinch, instead he sent the same wind jutsu out towards the genin. Both wind jutsu's clashed and it seemed like Orochimaru's was over powering Naruto's own.

Sasuke appeared behind Orochimaru at that moment and attacked with taijutsu. Out of everyone, Sasuke knew who Orochimaru fought. The Sannin easily evaded or blocked the Uchiha. Sasuke was beginning to get frustrated with the Sannin.

A split second after Orochimaru blocked Sasuke for the thirtieth time, Sasuke shunshined out-of-the-way. Orochimaru wasn't really expecting Sakura to be right where Sasuke once was.

Sakura didn't hesitate, and punched the Sannin with all her strength. As soon as her fist made contact the Orochimaru she punched turned into mud.

"I wasn't expecting that at all, you remind me of my old teammate Tsunade." Orochimaru's voice called from behind her. A second later, Sakura was sent flying back towards the others. She hit the ground hard once she landed.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto's voice called out, hundreds of Naruto's appeared around the clearing. Naruto didn't want to take any chances. Orochimaru needed to be dealt with.

"Ahh, yes the Kyuubi brat. I have heard a great deal about you." Orochimaru said from the edge of the clearing. Sasuke was now standing next to the real Naruto after the last attack. Both genin were looking quite serious, and seemed to be observing him quite closely.

The rest of the genin had all grouped together again. All of them on the other side of the clearing, away from the fight. Half of them still wanted to jump in the fight and help, while the other half were just too injured or exhausted to do so.

Sakura slowly stood up from the ground, her body ached all over from the force of the impact from the ground. They needed to deal with Orochimaru and quick.

The Naruto's all attacked a minute later, all of them charging towards Orochimaru, hoping to slow down Orochimaru, even a little.

The real Naruto and Sasuke were doing hand signs, for another combination attack. After all the two of them were always best with teamwork when they actually wanted to work together.

"Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder." Sasuke called out, as he created a lightning stream towards Orochimaru just a second later after Naruto's water jutsu was sent out.

"Water style: Water Shockwave" Naruto called out as a large volume of water appeared and was sent strait at Orochimaru.

That lightning and water combination was always quite deadly; they really didn't want to take any chances. Orochimaru had just finished taking out the last few Naruto clones when he heard the jutsu's being called out.

"They are definitely not genin, if they can pull out C-ranked Water and Lightning jutsu's." Orochimaru thought. The element attack was coming at him to fast, so Orochimaru couldn't get out-of-the-way in time. The attack sent him into a tree as well as shocking him.

"We can't hold him off much longer, he is a Sannin." Sasuke commented as he began to breathe hard from all the fighting.

"He isn't going to leave unless you get the curse seal." Naruto replied. "We can't just run either, were too big of a group."

"Sakura, go heal the others as much as you can. Sasuke and I will deal with Orochimaru. I think I have a plan."

"Alright, but be careful" Sakura replied before heading over to the other genin.

"Sasuke listen carefully, to pull this off we will have to work fast." Naruto began. Sasuke nodded in understanding, before Naruto hurriedly told him the plan.

Orochimaru climbed back to his feet a minute later, he wasn't injured very much from the attack.

"I am done with you brats, I am not going to play around anymore. I don't have much time, before I am spotted." Orochimaru said.

Orochimaru rapidly went through hand signs and sent out his thousand snake hands. Snakes were sent every which way towards the two genin.

Naruto nodded to Sasuke and the two split away from each other. Their plan was about to begin.

"Wind style: Cutting Whirlwind" Naruto called out as slicing wind was sent out from Naruto. Cutting up snakes left and right.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu" Naruto made hundreds of clones again to attack Orochimaru. Naruto then slapped a seal to one of his clones and then the clone henged into Sasuke.

Naruto's henge always worked, his henge's had never been detected as of yet. The real Sasuke henged himself as one of the Naruto clones, hopefully they could fool Orochimaru with this plan.

The real Naruto and the clone Sasuke jumped in with the clones, all of them attacking Orochimaru in any way they can. The fight seemed to drag on for half an hour, with Naruto adding clones in when they were running low. By adding clones, Orochimaru wouldn't notice the difference.

Orochimaru had it with all the clones, and he seemed in luck, for 'Sasuke' was in close range. He was going to get Sasuke, no matter what. Orochimaru punched away the few clones that were attacking him at the moment, and then he finally took his chance.

"Temporary Paralysis Technique" Orochimaru called out, making 'Sasuke' freeze in his tracks.

Orochimaru stuck out his neck all towards 'Sasuke' and bit into his neck. 'Sasuke' cried out in pain.

"Sasuke!" Multiple voices cried out from around the area. Orochimaru drew back and chuckled to himself.

"You will seek me out Sasuke-kun; I can provide you with great power." Orochimaru said. Many Naruto clones raced towards Orochimaru and some headed to Sasuke.

"It seems I have over staid my welcome, I will deal with you lot in time." Orochimaru said to the genin as he sunk into the tree behind him. He couldn't let Sarutobi know he was here just yet, he had plans to finish.

The clearing grew quite once Orochimaru had fully disappeared. 'Sasuke' was now being checked out by Sakura.

"Don't worry about that Sakura, I am alright." The only Naruto clone left said to Sakura.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked. Just as she finished her sentence the Sasuke she was holding poofed away. The Naruto clone next to the real Naruto was now Sasuke.

"What did you guys actually do?" Ino asked slightly confused.

"Troublesome, don't you see Ino, they tricked Orochimaru. Sasuke henged into Naruto, while one of Naruto's clones henged into Sasuke. With all the Naruto clones around, Orochimaru couldn't tell the difference." Shikamaru explained.

"Yep, that is pretty much it." Naruto began, "Except that I added a seal to it."

Sakura punched Naruto on the head. "How about you warn the rest of us next time. I was worried you know." Sakura replied.

"I know Sakura, I am sorry. It wouldn't have worked if all of you knew." Naruto answered.

"He isn't going to be very happy one he finds out." Sasuke commented.

"That's true, so did you guys get any scrolls? You guys took a long time to get here." Kiba asked. Akumaru barked in agreement with his master.

Naruto grinned and began to unload his pockets, as well as Sasuke and Sakura. In total they had 8 heaven scrolls and 7 earth scrolls.

"We didn't even get that many." Choji commented as he remembered that each of their team only had one extra of each scroll.

"I guess I went a little over board with the shadow clones." Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head. "Hey at least there won't be that many teams left. I think we should rest for the night, and work our way to the tower tomorrow." Naruto added.

"Good plan, it's already getting late." Neji replied as he looked up to the sky, stars were already beginning to come out.

"Yeah, and I could use a nap or something." Naruto added as he yawned, he was barely keeping himself up right. Making tons of shadow clones can do that to you.

"You aren't the only one." Sasuke replied, as he too was quite tired. The rest of the group looked like they could use a break too.

**********************

The next afternoon the twelve genin were almost to the tower. The one main good thing about traveling in a big group is that taking out enemies does not take very long.

It had been mostly quite in their travels, besides the few conversations going around, and the occasional attack on the group. Naruto decided to bring up something that he had been thinking about since the second exam started.

"Guys, I know this might sound odd right now, but I think maybe, one team should drop out of the exam when we get to the tower.

Before Naruto could begin to explain, everyone began talking at once.

"What! What do you mean, drop out?" Tenten asked.

"Why should we?" Kiba asked next.

"We are all quite strong, what is your reasoning?" Lee added in.

"Naruto, please explain what you mean." Shino's voice cut in.

Everyone looked to Naruto for his answer. No one really wanted to drop out now, they had gotten so far. It was their first exam too.

"What I mean is, if Orochimaru is going to attack sometime in the exam, wouldn't be wise to have one team at least to be at full strength? From what the third says, we are the trump card for the exam." Naruto began.

"That might be, but we shouldn't have that big of a problem. There is twelve of us you know." Sasuke replied.

"This is so troublesome. Naruto, we will all be fine. From what I gathered from my father, there is probably going to be a preliminary round before the third round. Everyone knows that a tournament is the last part of the exam. There are never over twelve people in the third round. We can't be the only teams to make it to the tower." Shikamaru explained.

"Shikamaru and Sasuke are correct Naruto. Since the third already suspects Orochimaru to attack, he probably has other shinobi preparing. We can't only part of the thirds plan." Shino added.

Naruto sighed, "I guess they are right, luckily there are more than three-time travelers in the group. I think I might have gone insane without them." Naruto thought.

"Alright, we are all going then. I want all of you to be alert at all times until after the exams are over. Orochimaru might try to attack again, we seem to have caught his interest." Naruto told the group.

Everyone nodded to confirmation at this. It didn't take them much longer to reach the tower at the end of the third day.

All twelve genin stood in front of the sign that was just inside the tower. Since six of the genin already present knew what to do, they took out their scrolls.

Since there were four teams all at once, there was a loud puff of smoke that appeared from the four sets of scrolls. Once the smoke dissipated, Iruka, Zabuza, Izumo and Kotetsu appeared in front of them.

"Ha, Izumo you owe me money. They all arrived at the same time." Kotetsu said as soon as he spotted the twelve genin.

"I didn't expect them to work together and get here at the same time." Izumo commented as he handed over the money.

"Good job Gaki's, now you have to wait until the five days are up." Zabuza explained before shunshining away.

"I am so proud of you guys, well I will show you to your rooms now, come along." Iruka said as he took charge of the group since Kotetsu and Izumo were still arguing about their bet.

"I am glad to see you Iruka-sensei, I missed you. Maybe we could go out for ramen after the exams." Naruto said as Iruka lead them through the tower. "I will even pay."

"I would be glad to Naruto." Iruka replied with a smile. "If everyone else would like to come they can. You guys can tell me all about your missions." Iruka added.

"It would be more fun that way, I don't mind." Naruto answered.

"Yeah! I will go." Choji replied, after all their isn't anything like free ramen.

After that everyone agreed to ago as well. It wasn't long until Iruka showed everyone to their rooms and wished them good luck on the rest of the exam.  
*******************

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys liked the chapter. :)


	13. Chapter 13

Just as team 7 started to relax in their room, that they were assigned, there was a knock at the door. Naruto, who happened to be the closes to the door, opened it. There was an Anbu, with a Bear mask.

"The Hokage would like to speak to you, Naruto." The Anbu spoke. Naruto nodded, and turned to his teammates.

"I will be back guys; I just have to go talk to Hokage-Jii."

Naruto then headed out of the door, and closed it as he left. Naruto followed the Anbu through the twist and turns in the tower. It was a few minutes later that they had arrived at a door. The Bear mask Anbu knocked on the door, before entering after hearing a come in from inside.

The Third hokage, sat behind a desk that was full of paperwork. The third greeted Naruto before dismissing the Anbu, and then did a hand sign to activate the privacy seals.

"Hey Hokage-Jii! I am guessing you want an update?" Naruto asked, clearly knowing that was what the third wanted.

"How did the forest go?" Sarutobi replied in return.

"A lot happened." Naruto began, as the memories flashed through his mind.

"Would you like to tell me? You were the one who told me about future events." The third said.

Naruto sighed to himself, he wasn't really sure if telling the third was a good idea. Naruto may have told him about him and the others being time travelers, but Naruto never told him much about certain events. After all, to many people knowing details, might mess up the time stream too much.

Naruto decided to just tell the third what happened in the forest; in the long run it would be more helpful.

***************************

"Hmmm, that is quite the adventure." The third replied, after Naruto told him what had happened in the story.

"Yeah, he will be back. I don't really know how long it will take him to figure out that Sasuke doesn't have the curse seal. I just know he will be very pissed." Naruto chuckled.

"Thank you Naruto, I have others on this case as well. The twelve of you are just part of this plan, as you know." Sarutobi replied.

Naruto nodded, "I know Jii. Well I will talk to you later than. My team and the others just got back you know."

"Yes, I know. Good luck with the rest of the exams." The third said as Naruto deactivated the seals and headed out the door.

Once Naruto was gone, the third let out a long sigh. He was getting to old for this. He was definitely relying on Naruto a lot. Sarutobi knew that if Naruto had not told him of being a time traveler, than this whole thing would be different.

"This generation will definitely be a strong one." The third mumbled to himself, before getting back to his large stack of paperwork.

****************

Naruto was heading back to his teams room, when he stopped in his tracks. All of a sudden, Naruto smacked his forehead with his hand.

"I still have to talk to Gaara; I don't want him to hurt anyone he goes up against. I don't know if the fights will turn up the same. I don't think my Kage Bunshin that followed the sand siblings really made much progress." Naruto pondered his thoughts as he walked through the tower.

Naruto was just about to walk into the last hall that leads to his team's room, when he stopped. Gaara was nearby. Naruto turned back around and headed towards Gaara's location. He needed to talk to Gaara as soon as possible. Now was the best time to.

Naruto spotted Gaara a few minutes later. Gaara was leaning against a wall, away from all the competitor's rooms. Gaara looked up at him a second later.

"What do you want Uzumaki? I don't have time for you." Gaara said as Naruto approached. Gaara was struggling to keep Shukaku's thoughts at bay. Every time Naruto was around, the one tailed raccoon demon went crazy.

"I want to help you Gaara, I know what you are going through. I can't stop the Raccoon's thoughts. You won't have to listen to him." Naruto calmly spoke. He didn't want to start a fight with Gaara.

"How can you help me? It won't work, it won't ever go away. I will forever me a monster." Gaara said in return.

"You are not a monster, you are Gaara. I am your friend. You are not alone anymore." Naruto replied.

Gaara stood up fully and studied Naruto. Gaara didn't know if he should believe Naruto's words.

"How?"

"I have a seal that will strengthen your seal. I have been working on it for a while. I am not only doing that, I am going to have the fox talk to him." Naruto explained.

Gaara backed up a little, could Naruto really help him? Should he let him try? Shukaku started screaming inside his head once more. Gaara shook a little from the screams.

"Do it" Gaara said suddenly. "I don't want to hear the screams anymore."

Naruto nodded, before getting to work. Naruto quickly took out what he needed for the seal, he made sure to have the stuff ahead of time.

"Kurama, I am going to need your help with this." Naruto thought.

"Don't worry about it Kit, I have been waiting." Kurama replied.

Naruto let a little bit of the Kyuubi's chakra out, to get past Gaara's sand defense that automatically went up as he stepped closer to Gaara.

Naruto easily pushed through the sand, with Kurama's chakra. The Shukaku couldn't beat out the strongest tailed demon. Naruto made a three Kage Bunshin to aid him. The real Naruto had to go inside Gaara's head. While his Kage Bunshin applied the seal and watched for anyone that might approach.

Naruto did a few hand seals, before placing his hand on top of Gaara's head. A second later Naruto appeared in the middle of a desert storm.

"So this is Gaara's mindscape, I can't really complain, my mind is a giant sewer." Naruto commented. Naruto then began his search for Gaara.

Luckily it didn't take very long to find him. Gaara was curled up in a ball before a cave; bars were blocking the entrance. This was obviously where Shukaku was being held.

"You brat! I will kill you! You are not silencing me. I will get through, you won't stop me!" The one tail shouted through the bars. Gaara was shaking from all the yelling.

"I don't think so, Shukaku." Kurama's voice replied, as he took over Naruto's body.

"If it isn't the Nine-tails, still think your stronger than the rest of us, don't you?" Shukaku called out.

Kurama chuckled, "Of course, though I could tell you quite a story about my container."

"I don't want to hear any story! I want to come out there and Kill you!" Shukaku exclaimed.

"I am going to tell you anyhow. My container is sealing you up nice and cozy. Of course he isn't a master yet, but he is better than anyone else at the moment. He is going to have the frog Sannin check it out, so you definitely won't be getting out anytime soon." Kurama explained.

The raccoon-dog demon knew Kurama was right. The seal the blond brat was using had already started taking effect. This wasn't going very well for him.

"Fine, tell me this stupid story, just remember, I will get out someday." Shukaku replied.

So with that, Kurama began telling Shukaku about the future. By telling Shukaku, Gaara would eventually know. Just not yet, probably after the red-head got tons of sleep. Kurama also passed over most of those memory's with a jutsu.

*****************

Shukaku stood in his cage in silence, Kurama was right. That was quite the story. If the one tailed demon didn't see the few memories Kurama gave him. Then he would have a hard time believing him.

"Your brat get's into a lot of trouble. It explains quite a lot, actually. For now you will have my coöperation. I want to see who this whole thing turns out." Shukaku replied.

"Good, the seal that is being used should let you still talk to your container. Though this time, he can block you out as well as sleep in peace. Well I am out of here than, my kit and I have things to do." Kurama answered before letting Naruto take back control.

"Thanks for listening, please be kinder to Gaara. I will be back if I have to." Naruto explained, just as Gaara that was curled up in a ball began to stand up. Naruto then backed out of Gaara's mindscape; he could always talk to Gaara in the real world. He could barely hear Shukaku grumbled something as he left.

********************

Naruto steeped away from Gaara, his clones had just finished up with the seal too. Gaara was standing there in silence; he looked a little shocked as well.

"Were done boss, everything went smoothly, though we had a few close calls with the others. Quite a few of them are looking for you." One of Naruto's clones replied.

"Alright, thanks." Naruto replied before letting his clones disperse. Naruto immediately got his clones memories a second later.

Naruto turned back to Gaara, who looked a little less shocked now.

"I don't hear him, I don't hear him screaming." Gaara finally said.

"Yes, I fixed that. You should be able to sleep now too." Naruto explained.

"Really? It's been so long….." Gaara mumbled.

"I don't know how to thank you." Gaara added.

"You don't have to thank me. Just be my friend, that's all I need. Oh, and when you or if you fight anyone from the leaf, please refrain from killing or seriously injuring them. I don't want to see any of my friends badly hurt." Naruto explained.

Gaara nodded, "I understand. Thank you again Naruto. We will be in touch." With that Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand. He was probably going to sleep.

Naruto turned back around and headed to his teams room. Naruto couldn't believe how carefree he was the first time, during the chunnin exams. So much was happening, and I didn't even realize it, sure we made it out okay in the end. Though this time, I am going to try to save the third. I have a lot more people on my side this time around. Naruto thought.

*********************

It was finally the day of the preliminaries, like the first time around; there were the same people who passed as before.

All of the Konoha 12, the Sand siblings, Kabuto's team, and the Sound team. Every team was lined up in front of the few jounin that were there and the Hokage.

The Hokage then started to explain the reason why the villages have chunnin exams, and he was just about to start explaining the rules for the preliminary round, when a puff of smoke appeared beside the third.

Once the smoke cleared, standing there was Hayate Geeko. Naruto looked him over, and tried to remember what had happened to him.

"Oh right, didn't I later find out he died?" Naruto thought as Hayate began explaining the rules for the preliminary round, just after Kabuto quit out of the exam.

"Maybe I can save him." Naruto added in thought as Hayate finished up explaining.

"Would all of you please face the board to find out who goes first." Hayate told the genin.

All of the genin watched the board, waiting for it to show who was going to fight first. A second later it stopped, showing two names.

"Would Yoroi Akado and Naruto Uzumaki stay here, the rest of you can go up to the balcony now." Hayate explained.

The other members of the Konoha 12, all gave him a nod of good luck before heading up to the balcony.

"Wow, I am first this time." Naruto thought as the other genin made their way up to the balcony to watch.

Naruto turned to Yoroi, who was standing a few feet away from him. Hayate waited for the last few people to leave the floor.

"Ready?" Hayate asked the two of them. Both shinobi nodded in unison before tacking fighting stances.

"Start" Hayate called out before jumping away from the two genin, so they could fight.

Naruto was slightly recalling Sasuke fighting this guy. Though Naruto could barely remember what he could do.

Yoroi smirked, "This should be easy." Yoroi rushed towards Naruto at a pretty fast pace. Naruto was quite glad Zabuza had been randomly attacking the group, his speed had enhanced because of it.

Naruto easily kept up with Yoroi, Naruto blocked almost every single hit that was being thrown at him.

A couple of minutes later Yoroi jumped away from Naruto, anyone could tell that Yoroi was angry from the expression on his face.

"I don't understand. Why aren't you dropping dead to the ground? I have been absorbing your chakra." Yoroi explained.

Naruto knew exactly why he didn't feel tired. Naruto had a huge chakra reserves. Naruto at least knew he had more than the jounin in the room.

"Is that what you were doing? I didn't notice, well it's probably because I have lots of chakra. Or at least that is what I am told." Naruto replied scratching the back of his head.

Naruto was pretty sure he heard a few face palms throughout the room. Yoroi seemed to have gotten even angrier by the look on his face.

"How can you have so much chakra? You're only a genin." Yoroi shouted.

"I know that, just because I am a genin by rank, doesn't mean I am not stronger in skill. I can tell you at least half or more are just as strong." Naruto replied. "Well I have had enough of this, how about we finish this fight." Naruto added.

"It would be my pleasure; I can still take you out." Yoroi answered.

Naruto didn't waist anymore time, by the looks of it, Yoroi was getting tired. Naruto rushed through hand signs.

"Wind Style: Great breakthrough." A strong gust of wind came from Naruto's mouth towards Yoroi at high speeds. Yoroi moved out-of-the-way, just in time. Yoroi may have gotten away, but that didn't mean he didn't feel the breeze it gave off when it hit the wall of the arena.

Yoroi rushed towards Naruto once more, he still thought he would have a chance to suck chakra out of Naruto.

Naruto blocked blow for blow with each one of Yoroi's. Naruto thought it was quite funny how Yoroi thought he could suck all of Naruto's chakra out. He still had Kurama's chakra.

Naruto kicked Yoroi away from him, sending him flying into the wall behind him. Yoroi stood back up shakily and he was breathing quite heavily. Naruto raced through hand signs again.

"Water Style: Water shockwave." Naruto shouted, as water appeared out of thin air, and it soared through the air towards Yoroi. Yoroi didn't have time to move out-of-the-way. It hit him dead on and sent him into the floor. With that Yoroi was down and out.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." Hayate called the match as he approached them.

The medics headed over to Yoroi and lifted him from the ground and out of the room just as he was slowly gaining conscious.

Naruto made his way up the stairs of the balcony where the other teams were standing.

"Good job Naruto." Kakashi told his student as he approached.

"Yeah" Sakura agreed. Sasuke just nodded at him, before turning his attention to the screen that would display the names for the next fight. The others did similar things.

******************

"Shino Aburame and Zaku Abumi, you're next." Hayate called out.

Shino appeared a few feet away from Hayate a second later, just as Zaku had made his way down.

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked glancing to the two genin.

Shino nodded his head, as he stood there silently observing his opponet.

"I am ready; this won't take long at all, bug boy." Zaku exclaimed. Zaku really liked to boast about himself.

"Begin" Hayate said just before jumping away again.

Zaku raced towards Shino at a fairly fast pace, but as soon as he punched Shino, bugs appeared, showing Zaku that it was a bug clone. Tons of bugs surrounded Zaku, so that they could suck out his chakra.

"Oh I don't think so." Zaku mumbled before blasting air out of the tubes in his arms, to kill the bugs around him. The bugs that were left retreated and went back to Shino who was standing a few feet away.

Zaku headed towards Shino once more, Zaku had decided that Shino was one of more of a long-range fighter, and wouldn't be very good at taijutsu, so he decided it would be best to fight up close.

Shino was really glad most of his friends were more close combat type fighters; otherwise his taijutsu wouldn't be very good.

Zaku's eyes widened in surprise, as Shino blocked every hit he was throwing.

"You are probably wondering why I am blocking you so well. It is because I spar with my friends quite often. They like to fight up close and personal." Shino explained as he punched Zaku in the gut, sending him flying away.

Zaku stood up shakily, for some reason he was running out of chakra. "It must be those bugs." Zaku thought.

Zaku lifted his arms, to shoot air out once more, but nothing happened.

"What the?" Zaku was quite confused, why the tube's in his arms weren't working. Zaku tired on once more to send out air towards Shino, but it wasn't working.

"Why isn't it working you ask? It is because my insects have clogged the holes in your arms. It's only a matter of time before it blows up with in you. Just as Shino finished his sentence, there was a blast and Zaku was sent into the wall behind him, knocked unconscious.

"Winner, Shino Aburame." Hayate called as medics came into get Zaku.

Shino nodded, before heading back up the stairs to the balcony.

"Good job Shino!" Kiba shouted to him.

"Yes, you did great." Hinata agreed. The other members of the Konoha 12 all replied with similar sayings.

"Thank you, I hope you all do well, as Naruto and I." Shino replied just as the screen was scrolling through names.

**************

"Would Shikamaru Nara and Kankuro Sabaku please make your way down." Hayate called out, once the names on the board showed the images of Kankuro and Shikamaru.

"Troublesome, at least it's not a girl this time, but this fight will be a little harder." Shikamaru mumbled as he slowly made his way down the stairs. Kankuro was already waiting next to Hayate.

"Hurry up Shikamaru! You're so lazy!" Ino shouted from the balcony.

Shikamaru ignored Ino completely, luckily he had some practice ignoring Ino's loud mouth.

Shikamaru knew he had to beat Kankuro. The third round needed as many of the Konoha 12 as possible.

It didn't help, that all of these fights weren't the same as the ones from before. Shikamaru finally made his way down the stairs and over to Hayate.

Hayate didn't even ask if they were ready this time, it was fairly obvious that they were. Hayate jumped away after telling the two to start.

Shikamaru was really glad he knew how Kankuro's puppets worked, and glad that he was stronger now than he was the first time around.

Kankuro jumped away from Shikamaru, to create distance and get into a ready stance for his puppets. Shikamaru smirked, he had it all planned out.

I suppose it was time to surprise most of older people here, after all. Most clans from Konoha stick with their own clan jutsu and only use that.

That was one thing he learned before they traveled back in time. There were just too many strong people in the future.

"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu" Shikamaru called out after racing through hand signs. A fairly large fireball raced towards Kankuro. Kankuro jumped to the side, away from the fireball, and attached chakra strings to his puppet on his back. Just as he landed he froze in place.

"How the hell?" Kankuro exclaimed as he tried to move.

"You are caught by my shadow." Shikamaru answered as he held his hands together in a hand sign.

"Damn it!" Kankuro growled as he struggled within the shadow. He had to get out f this. He couldn't just lose so easily.

Shikamaru started to curse in his head, he wished he was older, or like Naruto and have a huge chakra reserve. He was slowly running out of chakra.

He would have to end this, if he left Kankuro go then he would lose this fight. He may be stronger than he was before, but that didn't mean he could win against just anyone. There were other things that could come into play.

Shikamaru started to walk forwards, and lead Kankuro towards the wall behind him. It was quite difficult, because Kankuro was really trying to get out of his shadow bind.

Once he reached the wall, Shikamaru pushed more of his chakra into his shadow jutsu to keep it going.

All he needed to do was knock Kankuro out. Shikamaru made a motion with his head as if he was slamming his head into something. Kankuro who was attached to his shadow mimicked his movements. Upon hitting his head very hard against the wall behind him Kankuro was barely awake.

He was worked really hard to keep himself awake. Kankuro couldn't believe how strong these Konoha genin were. The information they had received didn't say much, their fighting skill were stronger than what they were told.

Shikamaru made the same head motion once more, causing Kankuro once again to do the same. This time Kankuro didn't say conscious.

Shikamaru sighed, that was close. He really was almost out of chakra, it was enough to get him up the stairs. Hopefully everyone would let him sleep now.

"Winner, Shikamaru Nara." Hayate called out. The medics were checking Kankuro over.

The sand-nin woke up a minute later, though slightly dazed. Kankuro cursed, this was not how this was supposed to go. Gaara will not be very happy with him. Kankuro slowly made his way back to where his team was. Where they stood was pretty much the opposite side of the Konoha genin.

Shikamaru lazily made his way back up to the others. He knew for sure they would all be shouting, which would make things troublesome.

"Way to go Shikamaru!" Naruto, Kiba, Lee and Choji said in unison. Shino, Sasuke and Neji all nodded at him. While the rest of them congratulated him.

Shikamaru walked over closer to his team, before sliding down against the wall to rest. Now this was a lot better than fighting.

***********************

"Choji Akimichi and Hinata Hyuga" Hayate called out to the genin. This was certainly a different fight.

Choji wasn't quite sure, if he wanted to fight Hinata. He didn't want to hurt her, even though he knew she was plenty strong. After all, the Konoha 12 spar on a weekly basis.

The others weren't quite sure about this either. Asuma and Kurenai were about to encourage both Choji and Hinata to at least fight, but they was interrupted by Hinata.

Hinata turned to Choji, "Do your best, ok. Let's show everyone what we can do."

"Of course." Choji agreed. They were going to fight each other anyways. Their jounin sensei's were quite surprised by their genin's attitude towards the fight. The two of them watched the as their two genin made their way down towards Hayate.

"I guess this group training, is really pulling off." Asuma muttered.

"I guess so; I haven't seen Hinata ever be that confident." Kurenai agreed.

Kakashi decided to but in on their conversation. Kakashi, though it would be best to bring the other sensei's in on what he knew. Gai, who was standing next to Kakashi, also leaned in closer.

"Yes, they are quite talented; I need to speak with the three of you later." Kakashi explained. Gai already knew Kakashi had been suspicious. The two of them had slightly talked about it, but Kakashi never really gave much information about it.

*****************

Hinata and Choji faced each other, each of them in fighting stances. This match was going to be quite hard. Hinata's gentle fist was a close combat type of fighting, and she knew a few water jutsu's.

Choji's fighting was about the same, he didn't know how this fight would turn out. Earth jutsu's would definitely help him out.

"Begin" Hayate told them before jumping away, like he did in every fight so far.

Hinata attacked first, Byakugan activated, as she ran towards Choji in a burst of speed. Choji knew she had to get close to him for her gentle fist to work.

"Human bullet tank." Choji shouted as he expanded into a ball and rolled towards Hinata. It would be harder to attack him this way. Hinata gasp, she needed to get out-of-the-way fast. Her gentle fist won't be able to hit him if he is rolling too fast.

Hinata sent chakra to her legs, before jumping away from Choji's rolling form. As soon as she landed, she raced into hand signs.

"Water Style: Syrup Capture Field" Hinata called out. A stream of liquid was spit out and towards Choji, who had just shrunk back to normal. The sticky liquid splatter right onto Choji.

Choji knew that Hinata's jutsu would slow him down a lot, so the tank jutsu was out, she could hit him now. Hinata shot towards him once more.

"Earth style: Great Mud River." Choji called out as he changed the ground around him into mud. Hinata slid towards Choji, from the slippery mud she was standing on. She was trying to regain he balance from all the mud.

"Earth style: Earth Dragon bomb." Choji called out, the mud around him began to lift and form into a dragon that started heading straight towards Hinata.

"Water style: Water shockwave." Water formed out of thin air, and was now rushing towards Choji's mud dragon that was starting to fire mud at her.

The two jutsu's clashed, making the two attacks backlash, and send the two of them flying into the walls behind them.

The two of them slowly began to stand up again. Both of their chakra was running low, and they knew they couldn't be fighting much longer.

Choji and Hinata rushed towards each other, to engage in a taijutsu fight. Once more, both were glad the genin spar so frequently. Otherwise Hinata would have most likely beat out Choji with her Gentle fist.

With a punch, and a kick the two of them were sent flying back into the wall again. This time the two of them didn't get up.

"This match is a Draw." Hayate said to everyone after a minute.

The whole room was silent, especially the two's jounin sensei's. The two jounin, definitely wasn't expecting that. They had no idea, Choji or Hinata knew jutsu's like that.

"You see what I mean, they don't show everything when it is just individual team training. This is part of why I need to speak with you." Kakashi commented.

Medics were checking the two of them over at the moment. They were just about to be taken away when they both shot up from the stretcher they were laying on.

"Calm down, the two of you are low on chakra." A medic explained.

"Who won?" Choji asked.

"Your match was a draw." The medic replied.

Choji turned to Hinata, to address her.

"Good job Hinata, it was a fun fight. We should spar more often." Choji said.

Hinata smiled shyly, "Thank you Choji, you did a good job too."

"I want to watch the others fight, can I please go." Hinata asked, turning to the medic.

"Yes, me too." Choji said. "I just need some chips, and I will be good."

"I suppose, but please don't do a lot for a while." The medic answered.

The two nodded before getting off the stretcher and heading back up the stairs to the others.

"Good job guys!" Many of the Konoha 12 replied almost in unison. The two smiled and thanked them.

"It was really a good fight, I didn't expect that at all." Kurenai commented.

"We are all just full of surprises!" Naruto interrupted. "We just tapped in our potential is all. I mean almost every single one of us is from a clan. You should be expecting our greatness."

"You sure are, element type jutsu's aren't normally used until your chunnin." Asuma explained. "Though, you guys have been using them since you fought the four of us. How do you know them?"

"The library, where else?" Shikamaru commented from his seat on the ground against the wall.

"I get stuff from Hokage-Jii sometimes too." Naruto added, just in case the jounin wanted to look more into it. It also helped that the Hokage knew of their situation.

"I see." Asuma replied. So his father was sort of in on this too. Asuma was quite curious now, their genin were hiding something.

*************************

"Sasuke Uchiha and Misumi Tsurugi." Hayate called from the arena floor.

"Good luck Sasuke." Kakashi told his student.

"Yeah Teme, don't lose." Naruto added.

"I don't need luck, I have skill. Unlike you Dobe, though once again. I would like to have a full on fight with you." Sasuke answered.

"Whatever Teme, we never can you know. As Neji like to say, it seems fate doesn't want us to." Naruto replied.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, before jumping over the railing and landing gracefully onto to the floor.

Misumi was already waiting for him. Misumi smirked at him.

"Finally done?" Misumi asked.

"Hn."

"Are the two of you ready?" Hayate asked.

The two genin nodded, before Hayate told them to start, and jumped away.

Sasuke didn't even waist time, he wanted to win this battle.

Sasuke raced towards Misumi, and engaged him in a Taijutsu match. Just before Sasuke appeared before Misumi, the genin did a quick hand signs, but nothing happened.

At first Sasuke's hits were working, but Misumi began to dodge with easy. That's when Sasuke noticed that Misumi began to bend at weird angles. Sasuke jumped away from the genin, just before Misumi could wrap around him.

"Ah, I see you figured out my Soft Physique Modification jutsu. This allows me to dislocate my joints to fit into any space I need." Misumi bragged.

"Of course." Sasuke replied before racing through hand signs.

"Fire style: Fire ball jutsu." Fire balls shot out of Sasuke's mouth and raced towards Misumi. Misumi jumped out-of-the-way just in time, only to be attacked once more by Sasuke.

"This is sad; I don't even need my Sharingan for this. I am also not even trying. Did Naruto think his fight was easy too?" Sasuke wondered.

Sasuke sent Misumi right into the floor a few minutes later, Misumi was out cold. Sasuke smirked, the match was over.

"Winner Sasuke Uchiha." Hayate called, before medic's came out to take Misumi away.  
*******************************

Thanks for reading!


	14. Chapter 14

The first five fights were done, and over with. Many of the genin left were just itching to fight now. Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai had been observing their genin, for a while. They were becoming really curious now.

Nine of them just graduated from the academy like six months ago, and every single one of them, knew element techniques.

That's something you learn as a chunnin, because most genin do not have the chakra reserves to do element jutsu's.

Sure, there were the occasional genin who had the chakra reserves to do so, but twelve of them? Something was really going on, and the jounin really wanted to find out what. Jounin do not like being out of the loop, especially if it is their genin that is hiding something.

The board started to spin through names once more. All of the genin watched the screen with almost rapped attention. A second later, two named appeared on the screen.

"Neji Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka." Hayate called. Both said boys nodded at each other before heading down to the arena.

"Ok Akumaru, we have a tough fight ahead of us." Kiba told his fighting partner.

"Arff" Akumaru barked in agreement with him. Sure normally, Kiba would be the type of shinobi that would brag about his strength, and tell them that they were going to lose.

Though, since the Konoha 12 spar a lot together, Kiba knew exactly how strong Neji is. He wasn't completely stupid, as his friends liked to think.

"Ready?" Hayate asked them, glancing between the two for an answer.

"You bet! We are going to give it our all." Kiba replied, as Akumaru barked along with him. Kiba slid into the Inuzuka taijutsu stance, waiting for the match to begin. Neji just nodded, before he did the same and slid into the Hyuga Gentle fist.

"Begin." Hayate said before jumping away from them. Kiba knew this wasn't the type of battle to jump strait into.

He was kind of glad that Naruto had them switch sparing partners, and play Shogi once in a while with one of the "Geniuses" of the group. In the long run, it really did help. Not that Kiba would ever tell Naruto that.

Neji headed straight towards Kiba, hands positioned to plug some of Kiba's tenketsu. Kiba quickly flew through a few hand signs before shouting.

"Earth style: Stone Spikes" Earth like spikes shot out of the ground, Neji was hit in the side, by one of the many spikes, sending the Hyuga flying away from Kiba.

"Alright, it worked!" Kiba cheered, but stopped when Neji came at him once more. This time Kiba crouched and got into the Inuzuka taijutsu style.

"Fang over Fang" Kiba and Akumaru were now spinning towards Neji at a fast rate. Neji knew how fast Kiba was, and Neji was quite glad he was use to fighting Lee, who was the fastest one of the Konoha 12.

Just as Kiba and Akumaru were about to make contact, Neji used Kaiten, and spin a circle that created a chakra type barrier. Kiba and Akumaru were sent flying into a wall behind them.

Kiba got up as fast as he could; Neji wasn't going to wait for him, because the Hyuga appeared in front of him. Neji began hitting the tenketsu in Kiba's arms as fast as he could.

Neji was just about to land another hit, when he was hit from behind by Akumaru. Neji was sent flying away from the Inuzuka.

"Thanks Akumaru!" Kiba chirped to his dog. Akumaru barked to him in reply.

"I am not going to last much longer, I am going to have to end this." Kiba thought.

Neji got back up from being tackled in the side by Akumaru. "Fine, I didn't want to use any Elemental jutsu yet, but I have to win this fight. Naruto needs me in the third round." Neji thought.

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough" Neji shouted as a burst of wind soared towards Kiba, who was coming back at him with another Fang over Fang.

The wind jutsu was strong enough to push Kiba away and into a wall, with Akumaru by his side.

The two were lying against the wall, trying to get up. Kiba sighed a minute later, he realized that he was out of chakra, and probably didn't have enough energy to keep fighting. Kiba turned to Hayate,

"I give; I don't have enough chakra to keep going." Kiba said.

Hayate nodded, before declaring Neji as the winner. Kiba slowly made his way back to his feet, and scooped Akumaru up as he did so. He would have to train some more after these chunnin exams.

"Good fight, Kiba. You did well against me." Neji said as the two of them walked up the stairs to the others waiting.

"Ugh, thanks Neji." Kiba replied with a shocked face. "I will kick your ass next time though!"

"We will see." Neji smirked as they made it back to the others. All of them of course commented about their fight. Just like the fights from before.

**********************

The screen on the wall raced through names once more, before stopping on two pictures.

"Would Dosu Kinuta and Tenten please make their way down." Hayate called.

"You will do great, my youthful friend!" Lee shouted.

"Yes, show the sound nin your spring time of youth!" Gai added.

Lee and Gai began to go on a long loud rant, like they do almost all of the time.

Tenten rolled her eyes at the two, and made her way down the stairs to the arena. The other members of the Konoha 12 wishing her luck as she left the group.

Tenten stood facing Dosu, waiting for the match to begin. Hopefully it would go well for her.

"Begin" Hayate said before jumping away from the two genin.

Tenten jumped farther away from Dosu, and grabbed two scrolls from her pouch on her hip. Her weapons ready to be shot out from both scrolls at any given moment.

Dosu studied his opponent, his wasn't really like him to just attack without thinking. He left that to Zaku normally.

A second later, Tenten released the Kunai and Shuriken at Dosu from the scrolls. The weapons flew towards Dosu at various speeds. Dosu forced Sound waves through the metal device on his arm, to deflect all of the weapons flying at him.

Tenten began to charge lightning chakra into two kunai she grabbed out of her pouch and shot them straight towards Dosu.

The lightning chakra crackled around the two kunai as they soared through the air. Dosu went to use his sound waves again, but didn't have time. The kunai reached him, quicker than he expected.

Dosu managed to deflect one of the kunai, but the other one struck him in the arm, causing Dosu to be shocked by the lightning chakra.

Tenten used that time to grab another scroll from her pouch, and opened it like she did the other ones. Weapons shot out everywhere once more.

Dosu, who recovered in time, shot multiple sound waves from his arms. The first few waves blocked all of the weapons like the first time. The last wave made it to Tenten.

Tenten's hands immediately went to her ears. The sound waves were also beginning to make her sick. Tenten could barely stand back up, and before she could make it back to her feet, she was slammed into the wall by Dosu.

Tenten wasn't getting back up, after that. The sound waves and the punch from Dosu were too much for her.

"Winner Dosu." Hayate called as the medics came into the arena to check on Tenten.

Tenten was up a few minutes later, she was still a little sick in the stomach but she was still able to get back up the stairs and back to the others.

Even though she had lost, all of the members of the Konoha 12 told her she did a good job.

************************

"Ino Yamanaka and Temari of the sand" Hayate called up to the genin.

"Alright, it's finally my turn." Ino shouted as she headed down the stairs. Temari rolled her eyes at the girl, before she calmly walked down to meet Ino and Hayate on the arena floor.

"Begin" Hayate told them before jumping away once again.

"Get ready to lose leaf brat, you shouldn't take that long to beat." Temari told the Yamanaka.

"I wouldn't underestimate me, I am pretty tough." Ino replied.

"We will see about that." Temari replied, before taking her fan off of her back as she slid into a stance.

Ino knew that close combat probably wasn't the answer at the moment. So instead she raced through hand signs.

"Water Style: water Shockwave." Water materialized from around them, before heading straight towards Temari.

Temari was ready to swing her fan and block as much as the attack as she could.

"Wind Style: Weasel Technique" Temari yelled out. The strong burst of wind collided with the water jutsu making the two jutsu's disperse.

Temari acted faster than Ino could, and swung her fan once more.

The wind jutsu hit Ino dead on, and was attacked by the invisible blades throughout her body. With that, the fight was over and Ino was knocked out.

"Winner, Temari of the sand." Hayate called. The medics collected Ino, and took her away to get treated fully.

**************

"Temari is strong." Choji commented as he munched on his chips.

"She is. Ino wasn't strong enough to beat her." Sakura replied.

"You guy's seemed to know about the same element jutsu's." Asuma said to the group of genin.

"Well, we do train together Asuma-sensei." Shino answered.

The sensei's all shared a glance, before the screen shifted through names once more.

"Sakura Haruno and Kin Tsuchi" Hayate called out the next two names.

"Good luck Sakura" Hinata told the pink haired girl.

Sakura nodded at her, with a smile. Since she had fought Kin in the forest, this shouldn't take very long.

Sakura jumped over the rail, and landed gracefully on her feet. Kin was already there glaring her down.

"You aren't going to win this time Pinky." Kin growled out at Sakura.

"We will see." Sakura replied.

Hayate told them to begin; he once more jumped away from the middle of the arena.

Kin decide that rushing to Sakura this time, would be a bad idea. So instead she reached into her pouch to take out senbon.

Sakura headed straight towards Kin, with her arm positioned to punch her. Kin quickly began to throw many senbon at Sakura. Some of them attached to bells so that Sakura could be hit.

Sakura dodged the majority of the Senbon, but was struck by a few as well. Sakura finally remembered Shikamaru's fight with Kin the first time around.

Sakura was glad that Kin, hadn't thrown any of them at vital areas, otherwise she wouldn't be able to still be charging at Kin.

Sakura was just about to hit Kin, but missed when the sound Kunoichi rolled to the side and away from the pink haired girl.

Sakura's fist met with the floor, shattering the ground and creating a decent sized crater.

Many of the ninja were quite shocked from that punch. Some were reminded of the female slug Sannin, Tsunade.

Kin kicked Sakura in the side a second later and sent across the floor. The pink haired girl got back up to her feet and raced through hand signs.

"Earth Style: Stone Spikes."

Spikes of earth launched out of the ground around Kin. Kin tried to dodge as many of them as she could, though it couldn't be helped much. Kin was hit by quite a few of them.

Kin was too focused on dodging the earth spikes to notice Sakura suddenly appeared next to her. A second later and Kin was sent straight into one of the spikes behind her and into the ground unconscious.

"Winner Sakura Haruno." Hayate informed the ninja in the room. The medics were already collecting Kin from the floor.

Ino made her way back into the room, just as Sakura was declared the winner. The two of them both walked up the stairs together.

"Good job, Forehead" Ino told the girl truthfully. Ino knew from her own fight that she would have to train a lot more. Especially if she wanted to beat Sakura.

"Thanks Ino. Your fight was good too, you did well against Temari." Sakura replied as the two of them made it to their friends.

The others congratulated Sakura, and told Ino that her fight was good. None of them had anything mean to say.

Every single one of them seemed to learn that from Naruto. The boy always gave them positive feedback, even for things that would help them improve.

********************

It was finally the last two genin's turn to fight. This fight would definitely be intense. Almost every single person in the room believed so.

"Would Rock Lee and Gaara of the Sand please make your way down." Hayate called out to the two genin.

"Hey, did you ever talk to Gaara?" Neji suddenly asked, everyone could hear the slight panic in his voice.

Most of the Konoha 12 and the Sensei's all turned to look at Neji, to find him looking towards Naruto.

Naruto was looking out towards where the Hokage, and few Jounin were standing. Naruto was quite for a minute, before finally answering him.

" Was there any doubt? I wouldn't let anything happen to my precious people. Even the ones who don't wish to be saved."

This statement seemed to ease the tension that had started to build up. Of course there wasn't any doubt.

This was Naruto they were talking about, a ninja could change many people, and keep his word to anything. It was like a weird version of therapy.

"Yosh! I will do my best and show everyone my power of YOUTH!" Lee shouted. Lee's shout had broken everyone out of their own thoughts.

"Yes Lee, my youthful student! I know you can do it!" Gai replied with an equally loud shout. Lee did a quick Gai pose and jumped down from the balcony and landed on his feet, next to Gaara and Hayate.

"Begin" Hayate called out a minute later and jumped away.

Gaara didn't move at all. He looked slightly calmer than usual and just stood there staring Lee down with his arms crossed.

Lee wasn't much for being very patient, and launched himself towards Gaara in a very fast speed.

A second later Lee appeared next to Gaara, ready to kick him, but as soon as his leg was about to make contact Sand flew up and blocked him.

Lee tried again to attack, but was only blocked by sand once more. Lee kept at it though, and kept trying to hit the red-haired sand-nin.

Lee knew it was time to take his weights off, he shared a quick glance with Gai and then jumped a fare distance from Gaara.

The green spandex wearing genin quickly took the weights he had on his legs off.

The weights were so heavy that they created a small crater in the arena floor. There were several gasps throughout the room.

A split second later Lee vanished from most people's view and was next to Gaara in an instant.

This time Gaara's sand wasn't fast enough to block Lee's fast movements. Gaara was quite shocked that he had been hit. No one could normally get near him, because of his Sand shield. He was sent flying away.

A second later Lee was using front lotus on Gaara, but as soon as they made contact with the floor, sand burst out everywhere.

Revealing that it was a sand clone. Lee was all of a sudden knocked clear across the arena by sand.

Lee was up a second later, if he wanted to win this match he was going to have to open the gates.

After a brief conversation with Gai, Lee opened the chakra gates. Lee seemed to have grown even faster and stronger.

Gaara and Lee went back and forth for a while. It was just after Lee used his Reverse Lotus that Gaara began to fill the arena with sand, to stop Lee's fast movements.

Gaara finally got Lee with in his sand, he was just about to crush the boy's bones in his left arm and leg. When Naruto's voice flooded through his mind.

"When you or if you fight anyone from the leaf, please refrain from killing or seriously injuring them. I don't want to see my friends badly hurt."

Gaara let go of Lee, and let him drop to the floor exhausted. The fight was over, it was a good fight. Though he kind of wanted to see how strong Naruto was.

Lee tried to get back up to continue fighting, but he couldn't. The fight, and the chakra gates took a lot out of him.

After a few minutes, Hayate finally gave the match to Gaara.

"Winner Gaara of the sand."

As soon as Hayate said this, Gai jumped down and headed over to Lee to check on him. The medics were already heading over to them.

"Good job Lee" Gai told his student as the medics looked the genin over.

"Thank you Gai-sensei! As soon as I am well I will head out for more training!" Lee replied.

Hayate cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention. The Hokage and the other jounin in the room were already standing in a row besides the Hokage, along with a few chunnin.

"Will all winners please come down the floor, so we can discuss the third preliminary match of the chunnin exams."

Naruto slipped a piece of paper to Shikamaru, Neji and Shino before the group of them went down the stairs.

The only thing that was written on it was a day, time and place. The three of them knew exactly what it was for. They had to discuss a few things about the finals and such.

***************

The genin that passed were all standing in a row, in front of the older ninja. The genin that didn't make it were scattered around behind the winning genin.

"Now numbers have been placed in this bowl. This will determine what order you fight in, and who you will be facing in one month's time." Hayate began.

Hayate only stopped, because he thought there might be a question, but none of the genin asked anything.

"You will be given time to train, and rest before the month is up. There will be lots of people watching this time. All of you have seen each other's moves and now have time to adjust and get stronger." Hayate explained.

The genin all nodded in understanding before Anko went around with the bowl so the genin could draw numbers.

"2" Neji read off his number before rolling his eyes. The same number as he got the first time around. He wondered if he might be fighting Naruto again.

"8" Gaara replied.

"3" Temari read off her number.

"5" Shikamaru replied lazily. Shikamaru was glad he didn't have to fight Temari this time around.

"6" Shino stated, before sharing a glance with Shikamaru.

"9" Dosu said.

"4" Sakura ready off her slip of paper. This time she would actually be in the finals.

"7" Sasuke smirked after reading his number. It seemed like he was once again fighting Gaara. Though that left with Naruto at number one.

"1!" Naruto exclaimed, it was just like before. He would be fighting Neji once again. It seemed like the universe wanted to keep something the same.

"Alright you are dismissed, and I will see all of you in a month's time." The third hokage explained. The genin all nodded before dispersing from the tower in different ways.  
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I hope you all liked the chapter!


	15. Chapter 15

Naruto walked through the village a few days later, he was enjoying the day off for once. The final part of the chunnin exams will be in three weeks. That's when everything is really going to start.

At the moment, Naruto really didn't want to deal or worry with it right now. He was kind of avoiding the rest of the Konoha 12; he didn't really want to deal with all of them for the moment.

Though they had a meeting of sorts later today, so for now Naruto didn't need to worry about them.

He was walking by the hot springs when something caught his eye.

A man dressed in red and green, with long white hair was squatting next to the fence. Naruto froze in his tracks. He only knew one person like that.

"Ero-sennin…" Naruto mumbled. Yes, Naruto knew he would see Jiraiya again; after all they were in the past.

Naruto's heart was beating fast, and he really wanted to rush over there and hug the sannin.

It was really hard for Naruto to hold back. It had been so long since Naruto had last seen him.

"Hey Gaki! Why are you standing there?! Jiraiya's voice rang through his ears. "You're going to attract attention."

Naruto had subconsciously walked closer to where the toad sannin had squatted down by the fence. Naruto's eyes began to gather with water, Naruto hadn't cried since…well it definitely had been a very long time.

Way back sometime before they had time traveled. Naruto really couldn't remember when.

All of a sudden it was like everything Naruto had been through since before time traveling, and everything with the war had caught up with him. It just all wanted to come out.

Jiraiya was quite confused with the boy, and it showed on his face. "Are you alright kid?"

Naruto finally didn't' care anymore, and he didn't care was Jiraiya was going to say.

"Ero-sennin!"

The blonde plowed right into the white-haired man, and hugged him. Naruto didn't want to let go, he was slightly afraid that the man would disappear.

Jiraiya was even more confused by this; he had no clue why Minato's son was hugging him.

They hadn't even met each other, until today. Well when the boy was only a few weeks old, when he checked the seal. They didn't officially meet until today.

Jiraiya decided to just go with it, and let the boy hug it, by the way he was crying and mumbling he seemed like he really needed one.

"Why? Why did you have to go alone? Did you know what that did to Tsunade-Baa-chan? To me?" Naruto mumbled out, and Jiraiya could barely make out what he was saying.

"What are you talking about Gaki?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto finally let go of the toad sannin, and looked up at him.

"I have a lot to tell you Ero-sennin." Naruto began to say.

"Hey don't call me…." Jiraiya was cut off by Naruto, who all of a sudden grabbed his shoulder and shunshined the two of them to an abandoned training ground.

"What the hell Gaki! What is going on? Does the old man know you can do that?" Jiraiya asked.

'I will explain everything, just..." Naruto paused in the middle of his sentence, so he could think of what he wanted to say.

"Should I tell Ero-sennin? Though we do need someone else who is older and knows what is going on. I have always trusted Jiraiya, but Kakashi and the other sensei's have been trying to figure out what is going on with us.

We need someone else who can cover for us. I don't really want to bring so many into the situation already. The more that know, the harder it is to keep it secret." Naruto thought.

"Ok Ero sannin, first off...you have to hear me out, let me tell you everything, and then you can ask questions.

This is S-ranked kind of information. The old man is the only one that knows this, and well I guess the one tail…." Naruto mumbled out at the end.

"Alright Gaki, I will hear you out and then we will go from there." Jiraiya replied.

Naruto took a deep breath and then began telling Jiraiya about the future and everything that had happened so far.

************************

Jiraiya blinked several times after hearing Naruto's story. Naruto's life sounded like it was harsh, crazy and the boy seemed to be a walking target for everything.

Almost every single mission there was some problem. Though now Jiraiya knew why Naruto was so upset when they met a few hours ago.

"Prove that you're from the future. Then I just might believe you." Jiraiya finally said after a few minutes.

Naruto nodded in understanding and began to make a Rasengan in his hand. He then proceeded to make it bigger and headed straight for a tree nearby.

Jiraiya was quite shocked by this, and was even more shocked when the blonde destroyed not one tree but a few others that were behind it.

"Sorry, I can't add the wind element to it yet. My body wouldn't be able to handle it." Naruto explained.

"Hmmm, I see. Well kid I think I believe you, your story checks out well, but just in case I am going to see how well you do with this." Jiraiya replied as he dug out the toad summoning contract.

"I was going to have you sign it later, but you seem to know what to do." Jiraiya said.

Naruto grinned. He was finally getting the toad contact. He really missed seeing the toads.

Naruto quickly bit his thumb to draw blood and signed the contract where is name usually would be.

"Ok Gaki. Summon the toad boss for me." Jiraiya told the blond.

Naruto quickly went through the hand signs and yelled out.

"Summoning jutsu!"

A huge cloud of smoke rose from underneath Naruto and expanded around the clearing. Naruto summoned Gamabunta on the first try.

"What's going on? Jiraiya why did you summon me? You are still in trouble from the last time you summoned me!" Gamabunta told the sannin. Though before Jiraiya could reply, Naruto interrupted.

"It wasn't Ero-sennin that summoned you. It was me!" Naruto told the giant toad.

"You summoned me? I don't think a runt like you actually summoned me." Gamabunta answered Naruto.

"I really did, I can summon Gamakichi or Gamatatsu if you want. I will prove I did." Naruto told the boss toad.

"Alright kid, summon my two sons and we will see." The toad boss replied.

Naruto grinned and jumped down from Gamabunta's head. As soon as the blonde landed in a squat he began to do the hand signs once more.

"Summoning jutsu."

A small poof of smoke later and both Gamakichi and Gamatatsu appeared next to Naruto.

"Hey pops! What's going on?" Gamakichi asked as he recognized his father and Jiraiya, though he had no clue who the blond kid was.

"It seems like we have a new summoner now." Gamabunta answered.

"Yes! I now can summon toads! Hey Boss toad, isn't there some test I have to do?" Naruto asked.

The Toad boss chuckled a bit. "Yes, you have to drink sake with me, but seeing that you are too young to be drinking. I will have to wait a few years."

"Hey do you have any snacks?" Gamatatsu asked hopefully.

"You idiot, you can't just ask people for food." Gamakichi replied to his younger brother.

"I actually do, would you like some?" Naruto asked the small yellow toad. "You can have some to, Gamakichi." Naruto added as he pulled out the snacks he just happen to have from his pouch.

"Yay snacks!" Gamatatsu cheered as he grabbed some from Naruto's hands. Gamakichi grabbed the rest of the snacks from Naruto.

"We will see you later kid, we have things to do." Gamakichi told him, before the two of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I guess I will see you around Gaki, and Jiraiya you're still in trouble." With that Gamabunta left in a puff of smoke.

**********************

Naruto was now walking back through the village; Jiraiya had said he was going to the Hokage, so this left Naruto to wander once more.

Naruto walked towards training ground seven, the others were probably all waiting for him to show up. They all had a lot to discuss before the third part of the exam.

"There you are Naruto, what took you so long?" Kiba asked the blonde genin.

"Sorry, I ran into an old toad peaking into the hot springs." Naruto answered. The time travelers that were amongst the group knew exactly who he was talking about.

"Whatever, can we just get on with this? I want to train." Neji interrupted before anyone else could reply.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked shyly.

"Right, well as you guys know the third wanted us find out about the few spies that were in the exam. We already know just about every spy that is in the exam. From what I understand, there is going to be an attack during the third part of the exam." Naruto began.

"What! Why aren't we solving the problem now? Why are we waiting?" Ino asked.

"Troublesome blond, why don't you just let Naruto finish first and then ask questions?" Shikamaru asked.

"What did you say, you lazy ass? I just wanted to know, I didn't know if he was going to continue." Ino shouted in reply.

"Ino please calm down, you can shout at Shikamaru later." Choji told the girl.

"Fine!" Ino replied as she faced away from Shikamaru with a pout.

"Anyways Ino, the answer to your question is simple. Orochimaru doesn't know that we know about the attack. We have the element of surprise; we can't let Orochimaru be tipped of that we know." Naruto answered.

"So what are we doing about it?" Tenten asked.

"Us genin have a totally different plan. Sure Hokage-Jii has hidden Anbu and stuff, but we are all on the inside.

So I am going to tell you what were going to do. After that I think it is best that we all train as much as we can, but don't push yourselves to bad.

We won't meet again until a few days before the third exam so we can go over the plan once more. Is everyone ok with this?" Naruto asked the group.

"YOSH! Our spring time of youth is burning brightly; we will show everyone what the power of youth can do!" Lee shouted.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Kiba agreed, followed by a bark of agreement from Akumaru.

The rest of the group had similar replies, and a few just nodded in agreement.

"So Naruto, what is your plan anyways?" Sakura asked.

Naruto sighed, before he began to tell everyone his plans for the third exam.

********************

Naruto was again walking through the streets of Konoha two weeks later; he was currently taking a break from all the training he had been doing, and was searching for the sand siblings.

It was very important to get the three of them to work alongside the group. After all Gaara is one of the main contributors to the attack.

Naruto was now checking through the many training grounds of Konoha when he felt Gaara's chakra signature spike a few minutes ago.

Just as Naruto arrived in training ground 24, Gaara appeared in front of him, in a swirl of sand.

"Hey Gaara, I was looking for you. How have you been?" Naruto asked.

"Hello Naruto. I have been rather well now that I can sleep. I want to thank you once again. What is it that you need?" Gaara replied.

"That's great! You're welcome, I am glad I could help. You are my friend after all; I help all of my friends whenever I can. I actually wanted to talk to you about the third exam."

"I see, so you know about the attack then?" Gaara asked in reply.

Naruto sighed; he really hoped this would work. If he got Gaara to help them out, it would be a lot easier to fight off everyone during the attack.

"Yes, I do. I thought maybe I could change your mind, and help us out instead." Naruto answered. "I really don't want to have to fight you, and I also don't want any of my friends to get hurt either, that includes you." Naruto explained.

"I know you might not want to hear this, but your father isn't alive anymore. Orochimaru has taken his place as the Kazekage to get into the exam without worry of being caught." Naruto added.

"I see, after being able to sleep, and having a few discussions with Shukaku I think it would be best to side with you.

I have actually been meaning to tell you about the exam, but you seem to have beaten me to it." Gaara explained.

"Oh, well that works well with me. I really appreciate it, talk to your siblings about the exam as well.

Talk to them, they do care about you. Otherwise they wouldn't have stayed with you, even if they were your siblings." Naruto replied.

"I understand Naruto; I will speak with them and see you in about a week then." Gaara said.

"Wait, three days before the exam come to my apartment to discuss plans. It would be best if everyone knew who was on what side. Oh, and I want you to ask Shukaku about me.

Tell him to tell you everything. Though I recommended you do it when your alone and won't be doing anything for a while." Naruto explained.

Gaara nodded, before leaving in a swirl of sand. Once Gaara was out of sight, Naruto took a deep breath.

"All this planning is starting to make my head hurt. I feel like there is so much to do in so little time. Not to mention what things I have to do, after the whole exam fiasco is over." Naruto thought.

"Don't worry about it too much. For now just take it a day at a time, that the only thing you can do. You can't keep stressing about all the things that need to be done, it won't be good for you." Kurama replied to the blond genin.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I attacked Ero-sennin with a hug and burst into tears when I saw him. I guess holding all of that in for so long, kind of took over. You know me, I like to express my emotions in battle and to everyone I meet." Naruto said.

"Yes kit, we all know you wear your heart on your sleeve. How about some training, I don't want to hear anymore of your mushy feelings. We have work to do." Kurama replied.

"Alright, I will get back to training. Though first, I am going to stop for some ramen, before I do anything else." Naruto answered with a grin. With that Naruto headed to Ichiraku's.

********************

It was finally the third day before the chunnin exams, and Naruto was setting everything up in his apartment.

Sure his apartment was small, and some people might have to squish a little, but it was one of the easiest places to use privacy seals.

So his place was about the only place that would work. Naruto didn't want many people to know of his plans.

The Konoha 12 and the sand siblings were enough. He was almost considering Zabuza and Haku to help, but they were probably better off not knowing.

It was about an hour later that everyone began to show up and find some spot to sit in. Though half of the group was quite surprised when Gaara showed up with his siblings in tow.

Naruto activated his seals, before turning to the group.

"Let me talk, before people start freaking out. Gaara is on our side now, and is willing to help." Naruto began.

Some nodded in understanding, though there were a few who still kept their guard up and were unsure. Two of them were Temari and Kankuro; they seemed quite unsure what to do.

"Hold on a second. Who put you in charge?" Kankuro asked just before Naruto was going to start.

"I have talked to at least half the group about this plan. Sure, I am not the smartest one in the group, and I would probably lose if they all wanted to fight me, and I know at least five of them would give me a hard time if I fought them separately. Each of you are al l strong in your own way, and contribute to the group very well." Naruto began.

"The Hokage let me have the clearance to have a 12 man team to work together with for the chunnin exams. I just added you guys in, to help the plan move along better. Gaara is my friend, and now Kankuro, you and Temari are my friends too. I am just trying to keep everyone safe is all." Naruto finished.

"If everyone knew about the future, this wouldn't be hard to explain. I just can't let too many people know, it just get more complicated that way." Naruto thought.

The room was silent for a few minutes, everyone was thinking over Naruto's words.

"It's ok Naruto; just continue on with what you were saying for the plan." Temari told the blond. Temari could detect some kind of hidden meaning in those words, though she couldn't figure out what they actually were.

Naruto sighed once more, before explaining his plan.

"Ok, here is what is going to happen. We are all going to go on as if we know nothing is going to happen. We are all going to go all the way through the fights. Though do not go all out, we all need to be able to fight through the attack." Naruto explained.

"Are you sure that is a good idea? Isn't Gaara the signal to start the attack? If he is on our side, how is that going to work?" Sasuke asked.

"Gaara is going to fake it. I already have that handled; you two will fight until I give the signal.

I am going to have Kage Bunshin scouting around the village. While the fights are going on.

If I can pin point where Sound and Sand-nin's are going to attack from, I know where to send you guys." Naruto told them.

"Hmm…..that seems like a good plan to me so far. Though, what about any other spies? We don't know what their plans are." Shikamaru replied.

"You don't have to worry about Dosu, he is already dead. He has been trying to follow me for the past few days now. I think your plan will work completely fine, without him in the exam." Gaara explained to the group.

"That's good; Kabuto is one of our main concerns as well as Orochimaru. The old man is in charge of that part though. We will all have to do our best and hope it all works out ok. Kabuto is a threat and a tough opponent. Be careful the next few days, and don't talk about any plans. We don't want anything to go wrong, if we can help it." Naruto told the group.

"So for now, all we can do is wait for the third part of the chunnin exams to start?" Choji asked as he munched on a bag of potato chips.

"Sadly that is all we can do." Neji answered for Naruto.

"Hey, how are you going to talk to us when were sitting in the stands?" Tenten asked.

"Tenten does have a point." Shino commented.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." Naruto replied as he left the room for a few minutes, before coming back with a small box.

"Usually, we only can get these through the mission desk, but I got the Hokage to give me a box." Naruto began as he started to pull out wireless radios.

"Those of you, who will be watching the exam, will each have yours on before the exam starts. They are already synced up with each other, so no one has to worry about it."

"The rest of us will do the same, though I would advise to be careful when fighting with them on." Naruto explained as he gave the last one in the box to Sasuke. Naruto already took his out, when he first got the box of them from the hokage.

"Alright, now that all the planning is over with, how about we all go hang out for a while? I have enough food and everything." Naruto asked.

"Who would pass for free food, I am in." Choji replied.

"Yeah! Let's eat and have a little fun!" Ino agreed.

"Troublesome, I suppose it is better than going home." Shikamaru added.

"I agree." Shino commented.

"Hinata-sama, would you like to stay? I don't mind staying; I don't think your father would mind as long as you weren't alone." Neji asked his cousin.

"I would like to stay." Hinata replied.

"Count me in!" Kiba said.

"Yosh! Everyone's youth is burning brightly today! I will stay also! Is anyone else staying?" Lee cheered.

"Lee calm down will you. It's pretty much clear that everyone is going to stay." Tenten told her teammate.

"I guess we can stay for a while." Temari said. Kankuro nodded in agreement.

Gaara didn't say anything, but he didn't leave, so everyone assumed he was staying too.

Sakura had already gone into the kitchen to help Naruto with the food, and Sasuke had said as much as Gaara.

It wasn't long until everyone was eating food, and chatting amongst each other. Even the sand siblings seemed to be having fun.

Naruto looked around the room, and smiled. He was glad, he got everyone to stay and have a fun time. They didn't really do this often in the first time line.

Kankuro was talking with Choji, Kiba and Lee about some mission he had went on.

Neji and Shikamaru were quietly talking to each other, about strategies and such. Though, he was sure he heard his name a few times.

Sasuke was playing Gaara in Shogi, while Shino was beside them watching the game. He was probably going to play next.

The girls had taken up the whole couch talking about Shopping or something. Naruto wasn't quite sure really.

Naruto definitely like this at the moment, no one had to worry about a thing.

"Hey Naruto, come tell Kankuro the jutsu you made up, and defeated the third with. That story is always hilarious." Kiba shouted to the blond across the room.

"Kiba I just want you to know, that I am not going to actually do the jutsu in here. I would surely get attacked by the women in the room" Naruto replied as he walked over to them.

Of course, since Naruto's apartment is fairly small, everyone heard this.

"You are definitely correct Naruto. I figured you would learn that eventually, it just took a few years." Sakura replied.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Go back to your own conversation." Naruto said.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him, before going back to talking about a new dress she had gotten.

The rest of the night was filled with laughter, and everyone was enjoying their time with each other. After all the chaos was soon to begin.

*****************

(Somewhere in the dark, dark, Forest of Death)

"Kabuto, what have you found out?"

"Not much Orochimaru-sama, the genin here in Konoha are keeping their mouths shut and don't seem to know what is going on. I believe they all may have met up today with the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Kabuto explained.

"I see. Have you had any other problems?" Orochimaru asked.

"The one-tail killed Dosu, though I don't know if anyone knows about our plans." Kabuto answered.

"Ku ku ku, well I wouldn't put it pass my old sensei to be suspicious. Make sure the four are ready, and have fifth be ready to come to our aid if need be." Orochimaru explained.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama. I will see you soon then. I still have to speak to Baki and give him an update of our plans." Kabuto explained.

Orochimaru nodded in understanding, before Kabuto Shunshined away.

"It seems like the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki is trying to mess with my plans. It won't work though; soon Konoha will burn to the ground. Ku ku ku." Orochimaru chuckled as he to left the Forest of Death.


	16. Chapter 16

Today was finally the day, the day of the Chunin exam tournament. Naruto was already up and about early that morning. He wanted to be prepared as much as possible for the day. He already had his Kage Bunshin scouting around the village.

Naruto was currently packing the rest of his things. Naruto had packed most of his weapons, and a few certain scrolls that he thought he may need later. He had to be ready; he wanted his plan to work perfectly. Naruto didn't want anything to go wrong today.

"You need to calm down Kit. It will be fine." Kurama advised.

"I know. I can't help it though. Last time I didn't even know about the attack at all, and not only did Hokage-Jii die, but so did other shinobi." Naruto replied.

"Yes, but this time you do know about it, and you're doing something about it." Kurama answered. "You also have your friend's, you're not in this alone."

Naruto nodded, as he realized that Kurama was right.

"Well the exam is going to start soon, and I still need to talk to Hokage-Jii about today." Naruto mumbled to himself as he left and locked up his apartment.

***************************

In all parts of Konoha there were people talking about the chunin exam finals. Many of those people were heading towards the stadium. The chunnin exams were one of the busiest times in Konoha.

Every member of the Konoha 12 was already waiting in the stadium, well all but Naruto. Ino, Kiba, Tenten, Choji, Hinata, and Lee were all sitting together at the back of the stadium. The six of them needed to be ready to move as soon as the invasion started.

"I just realized something." Ino suddenly said in a serious tone.

"What did you realize?" Tenten replied, as the rest of the group turned towards Ino.

"Naruto was the one that kind of brought us all together. I just don't understand why though. Like what changed? Why did Naruto want all of us to train together? None of us really talked that much in the academy. And sometimes…I get this feeling like," Ino paused for a second. "It's like Naruto knows what's going to happen next." Ino answered.

"I know what you mean. Though Naruto isn't the only one, all of team 7 acts that way." Choji replied. "Well it's really not only team 7. Shikamaru, Shino, and Neji have been acting almost the same as them too."

"It's kind of like they know some hidden secret we don't know." Hinata spoke up.

"Right!" Tenten agreed as he nodded her head in agreement. "Maybe we should look into this? We are a team of sorts aren't we? We can't keep stuff hidden between us; it can cause conflict within the team." Tenten added.

"How about we get this whole mess done with first. We don't really have the time to look into much right now. From what Naruto was saying, this invasion thing that is happening is going to be big. I don't want to fall behind in strength from the rest of our classmates." Kiba said.

"Yosh! We will defeat our enemy's on this day! If I don't do this, I will do 400 laps around Konoha and run up and down the Hokage Monument 200 times!" Lee shouted.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kakashi's voice interrupted their conversation.

All six of them jumped a little in their chairs, and turned in their seats to find their sensei's standing behind them. The six of them hadn't sense the four Jounin at all.

"Oh we were just talking about how strong we all have become." Tenten said quickly.

"We also don't want to fall behind the others." Hinata added.

"I see." Kurenai replied skeptically.

The four sensei's had gotten together as much as they could during the month to talk about their students, and their current plan was waiting until after the chunin exams. They had a hunch that the third was in on it, because the four of them had been doing a lot during the month.

*******************

Down in the arena of the stadium Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji, and Shino all stood near each other. Gaara and Temari stood farther away from them, so that they wouldn't bring any suspicion of them working together.

"So how have you guys been doing since you got back? We really haven't had much time to talk about that kind of stuff." Sakura asked.

"It's troublesome, but I am actually glad we got to come back. We have a chance to save what we had lost." Shikamaru answered as he glanced around the stadium.

"Indeed, and really we have Naruto to thank for that." Shino replied.

"We have a lot of things we could thank Naruto for." Neji added, as he remembered his fight with Naruto from their timeline.

Shikamaru, Sakura, Shino and Sasuke were not thinking of the things Naruto had done.

"He impacts many people doesn't he." Shino stated a minute later.

"The Dobe sure does" Sasuke mumbled. "What should we do about the others? They are getting pretty curious about what's been going on. We do know a lot for genin." Sasuke added, breaking everyone from their thoughts.

"Ino and Choji have been giving me looks for quite a while, they know something is going on. But they haven't asked me about it yet. Even though I know they want to." Shikamaru agreed. It wasn't hard for Shikamaru to figure out that Sasuke wanted to change the subject.

"Yes, Kiba and Hinata have both brought it up a few times. They mostly ask about Naruto, but sometimes they ask about different things." Shino added.

"Maybe we should consider telling them." Sakura suggested. "After all we are a team, and it might help us in the long run if they knew."

"I don't know Sakura; I don't think they are ready for all of that information. It doesn't help that Kakashi and the others are getting really antsy. We need to do something about that." Sasuke answered.

"The hokage can only do so much to stop them. We really don't need that many people knowing our situation." Shikamaru commented.

"We should probably talk with Naruto about this after the invasion." Neji replied.

"Good idea, though I don't think that Baka needs to think about more things to worry about. Anyway where the heck is he anyway?" Sakura asked, as she looked around the arena. "The exams are about to start."

"He will be here soon. He wouldn't miss something so important." Neji replied.

Just as Neji said this, Naruto appeared in a swirl of leaves in the middle of the arena.

"I am not late am I?" Naruto asked as he looked around the arena and checking everyone for any injuries.

"No, it doesn't start for another five minutes." Sasuke informed him.

Naruto grinned at them. He was finally ready to get this started.

"Awesome, I can't wait!" Naruto shouted. Sure there may have been an invasion in the end of the chunin exams the first time, but the fights were definitely memorable.

****************

The Third Hokage sat next to the Kazekage up at the top of the stadium in the Hokage box. They were both currently discussing the participants for the exam.

"So Hokage-dono, I heard there are many Konoha Genin this year and I have heard they are quite the strong bunch." The Kazekage commented as he looked down at the participants in the stadium. His eyes quickly finding Sasuke and Naruto in particular.

"Yes there are." The third agreed. This year's generation will definitely surpass the previous ones. I haven't seen anything like it in a while. I have high hopes for them." Sarutobi replied.

"I see. So may I ask who you believe will win this year?"

"Of course, though I can't really tell you who. It's a tough call, the six genin from Konoha are quite surprising."

"Oh, I heard there is high hopes for Sasuke Uchiha to win, and only recently heard from a few people that Naruto Uzumaki was in the also in the running." The Kazekage explained.

"Yes, the two of them are two of our strongest genin." Sarutobi replied.

"I don't mean to interrupt our conversation, but it is time for the matches to start." The third interrupted. Hiruzen also didn't want to leak too much information to Orochimaru.

"Go ahead Hokage-dono." The Kazekage replied.

Sarutobi stood up from his chair and he quickly used a jutsu that would project his voice to everyone in the stadium.

"Welcome to the third part of the chunin exams, these young genin have made it this far and will now be participating in a fighting tournament. I hope all of you enjoy watching them test their skills against each other. With that, Genma would you please begin the tournament." Hiruzen explained to the audience.

*******************

(Down on the arena floor)

A brown-haired man with a bandanna on his head, and a senbon in his mouth appeared in front of the eight genin. Naruto and the other Konoha genin recognized the man from their first life.

Though this was also part of their plan, they couldn't let the enemy know that Hayate was still alive.

"Alright the rules are the same as the preliminary rounds. Though the matches will now be different, for Dosu was found dead a couple of weeks ago.

The first match will be Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga. Second match will be Sakura Haruno vs. Temari Sabaku. For the third match it will then be Shikamaru Nara vs. Shino Aburame.

Then the final match of the first round will be Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara Sabaku. Does everyone understand this?" Genma asked after explaining the change.

There were multiple nods in understanding, before Genma moved on.

"Ok, the genin not participating in the first match all need to go up those stairs to the participant's balcony." Genma said as he pointed to a flight of stairs to his right.

Everyone but Naruto and Neji headed towards the stairs so that the first match could begin.

*******************

Naruto and Neji faced each other in fighting stances waiting for Genma to start the match. Indicating that they were ready.

"Begin" Genma told them before jumping away from the two. Naruto gave Neji a look that Neji was quite familiar with. 'Let's give them a show.'

Neji rushed towards Naruto. Neji knew from personal experience how strong Naruto actually was, and if he wanted to 'win' he would have to hurry this up.

As soon as Neji made it close enough he attacked. Naruto countered easily, blocking the strikes Neji was throwing at him. This lasted for over five minutes, both of them striking and blocking each other's attacks.

Neji knew Naruto could probably do this for hours, he was freaking stamina maniac. So the Hyuga jumped away and rushed through hand signs after throwing multiple Kunai towards Naruto so that Neji could have a few extra seconds of time.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" Neji shouted, a strong burst of wind soared towards Naruto. Naruto had just finished deflected the kunai before the wind jutsu hit him and sent the blond into the wall behind him.

Naruto quickly got out of the human shape hole and rushed through his own hand signs.

"Kage Bunshin" twenty figures of Naruto's appeared around the arena. Ten of them headed straight towards Neji hoping for a distraction. As soon as they got close enough Neji used Kaiten to deflect the clones.

Though as soon as he stopped spinning, he was sent flying into the ground by another clone. Neji got up quickly, knowing Naruto would be attacking again. And he was right, Naruto and his remaining clones were flying through hand signs.

"This isn't going to be very good." Neji thought.

"Water style: Water shockwave/ Wind style: Wind Gale." Naruto's voice was heard from all around him. Wind and water were shot right at him before he could do anything about them, and Neji was sent into the ground once more.

Neji was shaking as he stood back up. Naruto definitely knew how to make a show. "Naruto always seems to get a step ahead of the rest of us, just as we get caught up." Neji thought.

"That definitely hurt." Neji mumbled as he tried to catch his breath. Naruto was definitely a lot stronger then he was the first time around.

It was probably time to just forfeit. If they kept going Neji knew he might be able to help with the invasion, if all his strength went to fighting Naruto. That's how he missed so much the first time.

"I give." Neji said turning to Genma.

"Um…alright." Genma answered. "Winner Naruto Uzumaki."

The crowed was silent for a couple minutes, before the audience began to cheer loudly. Neji might have given up the match, but their fight was entertaining.

******************

"Hmm….Naruto-san is very interesting." The Kazekage mumbled. "That brat has a high possibility of getting in my way. I will have to do something about him."

"Yes, Naruto-kun is quite special." Hiruzen replied. The third really didn't like relying on Naruto so much. It was hard to believe that the twelve-year-old he saw actually had a mind that had seen a lot in his time.

****************

"Wow, I didn't know Naruto was that strong." Tenten commented. "That means he has totally been holding back on us."

"I know how you feel Tenten, though maybe he does for good reason. It is Naruto we are talking about. The dude spars with every single one of us." Kiba replied. Akumaru barked in agreement with Kiba's words.

"It's alright Tenten, Naruto is the one that leads our group, so he knows what we are good at, and what were bad at." Choji explained.

"It was Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto that brought all of us together, and since then it seems like we get together almost all of the time." Ino added.

"I kind of like it, and I have a feeling we have grown a lot stronger than we would have if we didn't get together." Hinata explained.

"I would have to agree with you" Lee replied.

***********************

(Back down in the arena)

Sakura and Temari stood across from each other in the arena of the stadium. Both ready to start their match.

"Begin" Genma announced before jumping away from them.

"Let's see what you got." Temari said before taking her fan off of her back, and swinging it at Sakura. Sharp wind slices shot out towards Sakura at fast speeds.

The Pink haired Kunoichi hurried through hand signs. Sakura knew she needed to slow down the wind jutsu, so she could get out of the way in time.

"Earth Style: Stone Spikes." Stone spikes flew up from the ground a few feet away from in front of Sakura. Slowing the wind jutsu down enough for Sakura to roll out of the way.

Sakura quickly made her way closer towards Temari. Sakura knew she had to get the fan away from the blond Sand-nin.

Temari flicked her wrist once more sending sharp winds towards Sakura. Sakura used the Stone Spike jutsu once more and did the same as before.

Sakura was getting closer, but this time she was sent flying backward into the ground by the Winds made from Temari's giant fan. Temari had switched her battle plan and was now swinging her fan over and over.

Sakura quickly got back up, showing no sign of pain. Even though she was covered in small cuts everywhere on her body.

Sakura decided, this was the closet she was going to get to Temari, if she didn't do something fast.

Sakura raced towards the Blonde Sand-nin, before flipping in the air to dodge a burst of wind and using the heel of her sandal to smash the ground around her and Temari.

The ground shook a little before pieces of Earth shattered into pieces and making Temari shift off-balance. This gave Sakura a chance to move closer and attack her while the blond was off-balance.

Sakura and Temari completely ignored the small gasps from quite a few audience members. They really only heard of Tsunade of the Sannin, that had strength like that.

Sakura drew back her fist once she got close enough and swung at Temari. The blonde Kunoichi got her balance in just enough time to use her fan to block the Pink-haired girl, but the force of Sakura's punch still sent Temari flying backwards and into the wall of the stadium.

Sakura quickly followed after the girl, hoping to get another punch or kick in, but Temari was quick to get back up and swing her fan at Sakura once more.

The Wind attack hit Sakura dead on and sent her flying into the ground. Temari didn't stop though, she quickly sent another wave of winds at the Kunoichi. Sakura didn't have time to dodge and was hit again and more small cuts began to appear.

Sakura huffed as she tried to shakily stand back up. This match was going to have to stop.

"I give." Sakura said a few seconds later.

Genma appeared between them, and gave Temari the win. The audience suddenly burst into applause.

*********************

"That girl was quite surprising. She kind of reminds me of Tsuande of the Sannin." The Kazekage muttered out. "Damn, what is with all of these genin?"

"Yes, I believe Sakura dreams to be a medical ninja just like her." The third replied.

"I see." The Kazekage replied calmly.

***********************

(Down in the stadium)

Shikamaru lazily stood across from Shino waiting for Genma to start the match.

"This is so troublesome, I wanted to forfeit. Blonds are so troublesome." Shikamaru muttered as Genma started the match and jumped away from the two of them.

"Let's start, because we don't really have the chat." Shino replied.

Shikamaru nodded in understanding, and easily caught the doubled meaning in Shino's words.

A second later, bugs began to swarm the area.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru mumbled before running through hand signs. "This is probably going to be the best way to deal with Shino's bugs. Though Shino isn't going to like it much."

"Fire style: fireball jutsu" Shikamaru calls out, as a large fireball shoots out and torches out the bugs coming at him. Shino quickly rushed through his own hand signs.

"Earth style: Terra Shield" A tall wall of earth shot up in front of Shino. The fire hit dead center of the earth wall. Luckily the wall was strong enough to stop the fire jutsu from hitting him. Shino sent only a few bugs from his coat. He would have to distract Shikamaru enough, so that he wouldn't notice them.

Shino noticed a second later a shadow moving towards him, the Aburame quickly dashed a way and flashed through hand signs and called out "Earth Style: Stone Spikes" as soon as he saw that Shikamaru was a lot closer than before.

Stone like pillars shot out of the ground, Shikamaru wasn't lucky enough to get out-of-the-way fast enough, for he was hit in the side by one of them.

The two of them shared a glance, meaning it was time for them to finish up their match. The two of them needed to be able to fight during the Invasion. They need to save as much chakra as they could.

Shikamaru noted that his chakra was slowly dropping, and instantly knew Shino had bugs on him. "Oh I see how this is going. Guess I will just have to do what the others have been doing. Troublesome, I was about to finish up my own plan. Shino beat me too it"

"I give. I don't have enough chakra to continue fighting." Shikamaru mumbled lazily as he lifted up his arm slightly in surrender.

"Winner Shino Aburame," Genma announced. The Jounin had to jump over a few piles of earth to get closer.

"We will also take a ten minute break, to fix up the arena really quickly." Genma added as he looked at all the damage around the arena. There was up turned Earth everywhere. The walls would be fine from all of the body sized wholes for now.

Shikamaru and Shino both headed back to the participant box.

********************

The stadium was filled with noise a minute later. Everyone was discussing the fights, and many of them were not too happy with all of the forfeits.

"What is with all of these forfeits? So far no one has went all out and fought until they dropped." Kotetsu muttered in his seat next to Izumo.

"How should I know? When we saw the Konoha genin fight Kakashi, Asuma, Gai and Kurenai they were pretty impressive. I was expecting a lot more from them then this. Hopefully the Uchiha's fight with that Sand-nin will be good." Izumo replied.

"That's true, I guess we will have to wait and see." Kotetsu replied.

*******************

"This is so weird; most clan heirs never use jutsu outside of their clans. Even though we have fought them before, and we have seen them fight. I can't get over this. Why do we get the genin that decide they should change-up the way Konoha works? It makes everything thing confusing." Asuma mumbled out.

"Maybe it's a good thing. They would be a lot stronger if they switched everything around. Other villagers do know a lot about the clans from Konoha. If they changed it up, they would have an advantage on the battle field." Kakashi replied as he watched a few Jounin fix the arena floor with a few earth jutsu's.

"I guess that makes sense. Though that means we need to start stepping up as well." Asuma replied. "We can't have genin already surpassing us, as a group they could be unbeatable one day."

"We should probably be proud that our genin are so strong. Maybe we are just looking into things too much." Kurenai commented. Instead of encouraging their genin, they have been questioning them. Kurenai was beginning to doubt their actions towards their genin.

"I agree! Our genin are top notch. They probably just train to become stronger, just like the rest of us." Gai shouted.

"Yeah maybe…." Kakashi replied.

*************************

(Participant Box)

Naruto knew it was almost time for the invasion to start. It also didn't help that he hadn't gotten any confirmation from his clones. He needed to get to the Hokage as soon as the invasion started. The others knew what they had to do. Gaara not transforming was definitely going to be good for their side of things.

"Be ready to start anytime now." Naruto said to everyone.

"We will be fine, everything will work out." Sakura told the blond. Sakura knew someone had to say something. Naruto was beginning to worry a little too much, and it wasn't like him.

"Yeah Dobe, were all a lot stronger than before." Sasuke added on. The others from the future easily caught the double meaning in his words.

"I know. I am confident in everyone's abilities. This plan was made to protect the leaf the best we can." Naruto replied with clear confidents in his voice. They were ready for this, and Orochimaru was going to be in for quite a shock.

**********************

If Genma hadn't been told earlier about the invasion, he definitely would have been disappointed at the Konoha genin this year. He knew they could do a lot more than this. He was currently even subbing in for Hayate. The swordsman was currently in the hospital after being attacked. Hayate was luckily saved and healing rather well.

The arena was fixed up a little better now, well at least a lot flatter. Genma was getting a little tired of all the earth elemental users. Through for genin, it was quite impressive that they already knew how to use elemental type jutsu.

Genma sighed; it was finally time to start the last match of the first round.

"Would Gaara Sabaku and Sasuke Uchiha please make their way down to the arena. The last match of the first round will now begin." Genma shouted out so that everyone could hear him.

A quite loud applause and cheering started as soon as Sasuke's name was mentioned. There were many people waiting for this fight to start.

The two genin headed down the stairs towards the arena and walked over to where Genma was standing. The two of them then put space between themselves so they could start the match.

"Begin" Genma said before jumping away from the two.

Sasuke launched towards Gaara, only to be blocked by Sand as he continued to attack. Since their match wasn't even going to last that long, it was probably best to save up his strength.

Gaara was only throwing Sasuke back with sand after sand, and Sasuke was only attacking with taijutsu. This had been going on for at least five minutes now.

"Alright, I guess I am going to have to use a jutsu to get this thing going." Sasuke mumbled before he raced through hand signs.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Ball" A ball of lightning gathered into Sasuke's hands as was launched towards Gaara.

The red-haired Jinchuuriki quickly made a ball of Sand around him, to shield himself against the ball of lightning.

Upon impact the ball exploded into the shield, and causing the sand to begin to crumbled to the ground.

A second later, feathers began to fall around the stadium.

"What is going on? The attack isn't supposed to happen yet." Sasuke thought as he stopped the genjutsu from making him fall asleep.

Around the stadium many shinobi were doing the same, and members of the Konoha 12 and the remaining two sand siblings appeared around the arena.

"Why is it starting so soon?" Tenten asked.

"I don't know, but we should continue the plan." Neji replied.

"Right, let's do this!" Sakura added.

"All of you know what to do!" Naruto shouted to all of them. Every member of the group nodded before all of them disappeared from the arena floor.

**************************

I hope you guys liked this chapter, and I hope the fight scenes were are ok.

Thanks for reading! :)


	17. Chapter 17

Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Neji rushed over towards the Kage box, from what Naruto could tell, the Third and Orochimaru were already on the move towards the roof of the stadium.

The four of them were just about to jump up to the Kage box and get to the roof. When the four of them jumped backwards in reflex, for there were now a dozen Kunai embedded into the ground and wall in front of them.

"Over there on the wall of the Kage box." Neji replied as he easily pointed out the masked Anbu that was now standing on top of the wall of the Kage box, looking down at them.

"Sorry, you cannot pass."

"You think you can take all of us Kabuto?" Naruto called out.

"Impressive, I didn't think you would know it was me?" Kabuto replied as he took of the Anbu mask he was wearing.

"Your chakra gives you away." Naruto replied easily.

"You are quite interesting Naruto-kun. You and annoying team of genin are becoming quite the problem for Orochimaru-sama. All of you seem to know a lot more than you should for your average genin." The Anbu replied.

"Yeah well, what can I say? We are just better than your average genin." Naruto replied.

"I see, well let's test you theory shall we."

Kabuto appeared suddenly in front of Naruto, with a Kunai positioned to strike. Naruto easily intercepted him with his own Kunai. In the next second Kabuto had jumped away from the small group to avoid the swipe at him from Shikamaru and Sasuke from the sides.

"Naruto, I think it would be best to leave him with me, and Neji. You take Shikamaru and see what you can do about that barrier." Sasuke said for the first time since Kabuto arrived.

"Naruto, I have to agree. Despite that it is more troublesome." Shikamaru replied.

Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Alright, let's do that." Naruto replied.

"I don't think so" Kabuto interrupted their small conversation, before rushing towards the small group, as his hand began to glow a light green color. .

Just as Naruto was about to rush forward to intercept Kabuto, Neji stepped in front of him. The Hyuga boy than quickly slid into the gentle fist taijutsu stance and stopped Kabuto in his tracks.

The Neji struck fast, and quickly blocked a few chakra points and then through in a kick to send Kabuto flying backwards.

"Go now." Neji told Naruto and Shikamaru as he turned back towards the med-nin.

Kabuto cursed to himself as he quickly righted himself, but barely had time to recover, as Sasuke appeared beside him. Which quickly lead to a small taijutsu fight, as Naruto and Shikamaru jumped up to the roof of the hokage box. They headed straight towards the large purple barrier that was now surrounded by Anbu and a few Jounin.

*******************

Sakura lead the way towards the academy. Shino, Tenten and Choji followed not far behind her. They had to make sure to get everyone to the safe houses. Most of the civilians that had not been in the stadium had already been escorted to the safe houses by the Anbu, Jounin and chunnin while the matches were going on.

It did not take very long for the four of them to reach the academy. They were almost there when Shino spoke up.

"My insects tell me that there are two sound shinobi standing outside of the academy. As well as three or more other Sound/Sand shinobi inside the academy. Why? Because they are looking for the students and the academy teachers. Luckily I know where the students and Iruka sensei and the other instructors are."

"We need to hurry then, so what is the plan of action?" Tenten asked.

"We need to get to Iruka-sensei and the others out of there; we will have to get rid of the Sound shinobi most likely." Choji replied.

"We should quickly take out the first two and head in. Doing that will make everything it easier to get everyone out of the academy and to the safe houses." Sakura suggested.

"Precisely, we can than head to the students and the sensei's. If we run into the other three we can split up and have Iruka and the other sensei's head to the safe houses with the kids." Shino replied.

"Also, my insects have already begun draining the two guards of their chakra. I sent more insects out to the other three shinobi that are on the inside."

"Ok, that sounds like a good plan." Tenten replied as she took out a handful of kunai out of her kunai pouch. The other three nodded in agreement with her, as they got ready to begin their plan.

Standing outside of the academy stood two sound shinobi. One of them was tall and skinny while the other one was a lot shorter. The two of them were looking around the area in front of academy. They seem to be waiting and watching out for any shinobi trying to get in.

The two shinobi jumped away from one another just as hundreds of Kunai began to descend upon them.

"Earth style: Earth Pillar Prison." Two voices shouted out.

Just as the taller Sound shinobi landed back on the ground he was surrounded by large earth pillars.

"Shit" The tall Sound shinobi shouted out.

It took a few minutes, but the Sound shinobi finally made it out of the earth prison after a small earth jutsu.

However, he felt drained of chakra for some reason after using the jutsu. The Sound shinobi quickly prepared for any attack that might come at him, and was glad he did, when he blocked a strong punch and kick from his right from Shino.

He was not prepared for the attack on his left though, and Sakura got a small chakra enhanced punch to his gut. Successfully knocking the Sound shinobi out. Sakura and Shino made work to tie him up and head toward Choji and Tenten.

******************

The shorter Shinobi was almost run over by a giant rolling boulder.

"What the heck is that?" The short Sound shinobi asked aloud. He once again had to try and move out of the way as the giant boulder was flying towards him once again. Though this time he did not get out of the way fast enough, and was partially squished by the rolling boulder.

Choji quickly rolled away from the Sound shinobi and shrank back into his normal size. He then slid into a taijutsu stance facing towards the Sound shinobi.

The shorter Sound shinobi was already back on his feet and rushing towards Choji. The two of them went into a short taijutsu fight, but because Choji won, out and punched him away, sending him right into Tenten's trap.

Tenten set down the knocked out and tied up short Sound shinobi next to the equally tied up and knocked out tall Sound shinobi.

"Alright that was easier than I thought it would be." Tenten commented.

"Orochimaru must fight with number instead of how well they fight." Sakura replied.

"Most likely, let's continue on and get everyone to safety." Shino answered.

**********************

Lee, Ino, Hinata and Kiba made their way through town towards the wall of Konoha. Taking any Sound or Sand shinobi out as they went. Most of the shinobi they in countered were easy and going down quite fast.

They did not know when it started but the four of them were currently in a competition on how many shinobi they could take out and see who had the most in the end.

"That was number 34! I am so winning" Kiba shouted as he knocked out another Sound shinobi.

"Don't even think about it dog boy, I am at 37." Ino replied as she took out a Sand Ninja with a water jutsu.

"Excuse me my Youthful companions, but I am at 42!" Lee shouted as he sprinted pass the two, so he could fight off another Sound shinobi.

"I am…at 45." Hinata told them.

"I am not losing to any of you! Let's go Akumaru" Kiba exclaimed, followed by a loud bark from Akumaru.

The four of them continued for a while in the same fashion. They were just about to pass the main market area of Konoha when they found five Sound shinobi ganging up on a Konoha chunin who looked to be pretty injured.

"Guys, we need to help him." Ino said once the four of them stopped.

The other three nodded in agreement before making a plan of sorts before heading towards the five Sound shinobi and the Konoha chunin.

****************

"Water Style: Water Bullet." Two voices shouted out in unison as multiple spears of water came flying towards the group of Sound shinobi. Three of them had jumped out of the way in time, leaving two of the Sound Shinobi tying to get up off the ground and soaked.

Hinata and Ino were now in view of the six older ninjas. The chunin from Konoha was shaking his head at them. Trying to tell the two of them to leave, and that they were no match for them.

"Damn it, more Konoha ninjas." A brown haired Sound shinobi said.

"More like Konoha brats, they are just kids." A dark haired female replied.

"At least this makes things more interesting." A black haired man added.

"This should be easy, let's kill'em." A dirty blond haired male commented.

Lee shot from behind the Sound shinobi and attacked the black haired Sound shinobi. Causing the other shinobi to turn towards the sound of fighting. Lee and The black haired shinobi were in the middle of trading blows back and forth. It was almost hard to see either of them.

"There are more of them!" A brown haired female shouted to the others just as Kiba's voice rang out.

"Fang passing fang" Kiba and Akumaru came spinning towards two of the shinobi and making contact with them.

With Kiba and Lee as a partial distraction. Hinata rushed into the fray and began to use Gentle fist on the black haired female. Ino was engaging in a small taijutsu/weapon fight with the dirty blond haired male.

The four Konoha genin were doing rather well until the Sound shinobi got over their slight surprise and actually started fighting back. The Sound shinobi definitely catching on that genin from Konoha were not ordinary genin.

"Fire style: fire ball jutsu." The two brown haired Sound shinobi shouted out. Spears of fire soared through the air cutting off the taijutsu fights and almost hitting Ino.

"Lightning style: lightning ball" the black haired female shouted out after going through a few hand signs. A ball lightning headed towards Hinata. Hinata was not fast enough to move out of the way in time and was hit by it and making it burst upon contact.

"Hinata!" Kiba shouted out in worry.

"I am ok." Hinata replied as she got up from the attack.

"I think it's time to show these shinobi our springtime of YOUTH!" Lee shouted as he shot back into the fray. The others agreed fully and they all went back to fighting the five Sound shinobi.

The Konoha chunin watching this fight could not believe how amazing these genin were. They were using elemental jutsu and fighting pretty much on par with these chunin and jounin of Sound. Right now, he had to try to rest as much as he could. That way he could help the four genin fight the Sound Shinobi.

*********************

Naruto and Shikamaru stopped right in front of the Anbu standing in front of the barrier. Luckily, the Anbu in charge was one that normally guarded the Third hokage. Hopefully, the Anbu would be willing to listen to him.

"Why are you here Uzumaki?" The Cat-masked Anbu asked.

"First, do you have a plan to get the Hokage out? He is going to need our help real soon." Naruto replied hurriedly. He wasn't too sure, how he was on time. Last time he was fighting a transformed Gaara.

"We know this; we are trying to work out a plan. Nothing we have tried gets through the barrier." Cat replied.

"I see. You have every single side of the barrier?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes we have, we can't get through. There are four people standing in each corner of the barrier." A dog-masked Anbu answered impatiently. He didn't know why these genin were trying to help.

"So you are saying the four in each corner are probably the ones holding up the barrier?" Shikamaru questioned the Anbu.

"Yes, the four of them are the ones holding up the barrier." A Hawk-masked Anbu replied.

"Then if the four of them are holding the barrier up, then all we have to do is disturb the ground they are on. That will disrupt their concentration on the barrier, and then we can get in." Naruto suddenly said.

The Anbu and the few jounin around the barrier standing close enough to hear the conversation wanted to face palm themselves. Why didn't they think of that?

"Alright Uzumaki, your idea is the best we got, let's get on with it." A Hawk-masked Anbu interrupted.

"Ok, for best effect we are splitting in groups. Each group takes a corner of the barrier." Cat said talking charge.

"You two stay out of the way," Dog said to them as he led a group to one of the corners of the barrier.

Naruto and Shikamaru just rolled their eyes at him, before turning to each other.

"When that barrier goes down we get in there as fast as we can." Naruto explained when the higher ranked ninja were out of hearing range.

Shikamaru nodded in understanding as the two of them turned their attention back to the barrier.

**********************

Neji and Sasuke were having a hard time fighting off Kabuto, even with their combined skill.

Kabuto was a very well trained spy, and one that knew quite a lot of information about the elemental nations.

"You two are good for genin, but I think I am done playing with you." Kabuto replied.

Though Kabuto knew he was at a slight disadvantage, he was fighting them in the seats of the stadium, so an earth jutsu would not be smart to use, so he was stuck with the few water jutsu's he knew and some of his medic techniques. He couldn't give away everything he knew to a couple genin, even if they were geniuses.

The two of them he was facing were definitely good, and there was something weird going on with the genin in Konoha. All of their files were a lot different from the moves he had seen them use. He would definitely have to tell Orochimaru about this.

"Water style: Water shockwave" Water built up in front of him and raced towards Neji and Sasuke.

"Neji, fire wind combo" Sasuke said as he raced through hand signs. He was hoping they could cancel Kabuto's jutsu out with their combined force.

"Fire style: Fire Phoenix Flower Jutsu" "Wind style: Great Breakthrough."

The two attacks combined and easily made contact with Kabuto's water jutsu. The water quickly produced into a large cloud of steam.

Just as the steam started to clear, the roof about the Kage box above them started to shake and fall apart. Pieces of the Kage box fell everywhere and smashing into everything below.

Sasuke and Neji quickly moved out of the way of the falling debris and the steam finally cleared away, but Kabuto was nowhere to be seen and the large purple barrier was down.

********************

Sakura, Shino, Tenten and Choji after fighting a rather large battle with the help of Iruka and the other sensei's were currently heading towards the stadium once more, where they were suppose to meet up with the others. The fight at the academy did a slight number on the four of them. All of them had small various injuries, and Sakura was able to heal a few of them for now.

The four of them after fighting with the enemy shinobi at the academy escorted the class and the rest of the teachers to the safe houses. Despite that, Iruka wanted them to stay with them and rest.

The four of them knew that they still needed to meet up with the others, and they were not academy students anymore. They needed to help the village the best they could, they could rest later when everything was over and done with.

They were almost to the stadium when they met up with Kiba, Hinata, Lee and Ino.

The four of them were arguing about some competition, and how someone was cheating, because there was no way, there was a four-way tie. After Sakura broke up their argument, the two groups shared each of their stories.

Kiba, Lee, Hinata and Ino had fought a group of five and winning despite that they each had quite a few injuries. The chunin that they had saved had rested enough to help them in the end. Ino and Hinata had healed any injuries the chunin had and then left to head to the wall of Konoha.

Once they were there they helped fight off any Sound and Sand shinobi. Since Naruto's clones disrupted most the summoning seals, there was a very low number of Sound and Sand shinobi.

The group of four then headed towards the stadium when most of the fighting was complete at the wall of the stadium. It especially helped when Jiraiya summoned a toad to help.

"So as far as our part of the plan, we all did really well. Let's get going and meet up with Neji, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Naruto." Sakura said to the group. Everyone nodded in agreement and headed the rest of the way to the stadium.

*****************

As soon as the purple barrier went down Shikamaru and Naruto sprinted along with the Anbu to the Third Hokage's location. Naruto didn't even question why he was jumping through a few trees on the roof of the stadium.

Naruto did not want to believe what he was seeing as he approached the scene. From what he could see, the Third was covered in injuries.

The long sword going through his gut wasn't good either. Naruto could slightly smell the blood seeping out. Orochimaru was only a few feet in front of him, stumbling a bit and was looking just as injured. His arms didn't look like they were moving either.

Naruto raced straight towards Orochimaru with a kunai in hand once he saw the Sannin in his line of vision. He raced right past the injured Third hokage and was just about to strike at the snake Sannin, but was stopped by Kabuto.

Orochimaru was then surrounded by the Sound four a second later. They must have gotten pass the Anbu that broke the barrier.

Anbu were now slowly beginning to appear, the medic Anbu went straight for the Third hokage, and the rest of the Anbu all began to surround the snake Sannin and his subordinates.

"I don't think so Naruto-kun. I am not going to let you harm Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto spoke with a smirk.

"I really think you should, that snake bastard really messes up things." Naruto replied.

Kabuto chuckled slightly, "Ah, but that's the fun part, now we really must be going. I am sure we will meet again Naruto."

Kabuto jabbed Naruto in the stomach with a glowing green hand almost faster than Naruto could see. Kabuto followed it up with a strong punch sending the blonde backwards. Giving Kabuto enough time to run through hand signs. A second later Orochimaru, Kabuto and the Sound four were gone.

Most of the Anbu hurried to try and follow the Sannin, but Naruto knew. They were not going to find him.

Naruto was cursing in his mind. This was not how the plan was suppose to go. His part of the plan was to stop Orochimaru and Kabuto during the Chunin exams, it was going to be a lot harder to defeat them now.

Naruto slowly got back up on his feat, and he headed over towards the wounded body of the Third hokage. Shikamaru was standing amongst the Anbu crowded around the area.

Naruto forced back a few tears when he saw the Third's body. He didn't even make it in time to save him. The Anbu were all quite for a moment before they started moving once again. They all had a job to do still, and knew what they needed to do.

Shikamaru placed his hand on the blonds shoulder to show try and comfort him and to let Naruto know that he was there if he needed anything. Last time Naruto hadn't found out about the Third's death until after a few days.

Naruto turned away from the scene and began walking back towards the middle of the stadium. The others were probably done with their parts of the plan, and they needed to be told what happened. After that, well they would have to figure something out.

Shikamaru sighed, everything was just so troublesome with Naruto. Thought the others better get ready, because most likely we will all be training a lot more.

***********************

Naruto and Shikamaru met up with the others at the edge of the damaged roof of the Kage box. Somehow, the thing was still stable enough to be still standing.

The others knew something was wrong the moment they saw the look on Naruto and Shikamaru's faces.

"Jii is dead." Naruto stated. "Orochimaru killed him. I didn't save him fast enough."

"Dobe, don't say stuff like that. Yes, the Third is dead, but it is not your fault." Sasuke explained.

"But I could have saved him. I was right there, and Orochimaru was there too. I could have stopped him from getting away, but I couldn't even do that! I could have thought up another plan, a better one even." Naruto replied.

" You can't save everyone. You are only a genin, you cannot just defeat every single person you come across." Sasuke yelled. The blond had to get out of this small funk, and fast.

"I know that! I know I cannot save everyone, but I am going to die trying to save everyone that I can. I didn't come back to the past just to give up and let all the people that I care about most die again." Naruto shouted.

Sasuke's, Sakura's, Shikamaru's, and Neji's eyes widened in surprise and shock. It was hard to tell if Shino was surprised or not.

"What?! From the past?" Kiba practically shouted.

"Die again? What are you talking about?" Tenten asked next.

"What the heck is going on here?" Ino asked. The others all nodded in agreement, as they all turned towards Naruto for explanation.

"Um…maybe we shouldn't talk about this here." Naruto replied as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

*****************

I hope you guys liked the chapter.


	18. Chapter 18

The room was dead silent as everyone stared at one another. After helping with the after math of the invasion, the Konoha 12 had all gathered in Naruto's small apartment. Tenten was the one who decide to break the silence.

"So let me get this straight, you guys are all from the future due to the nine tailed fox that is in Naruto's gut?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Sakura replied.

"The future must have been really bad then." Choji commented. The six-time travelers all nodded in unison.

"Yes, it was really bad, and we came back with a plan to change it, so that what happened in the future doesn't happen this time." Shikamaru explained.

"I see. I guess that would make a lot of sense." Ino replied.

"Yosh! I am willing to help in any way I can. No matter what the cost." Lee shouted.

"I agree! We can totally help change the future, right Akumaru?" Kiba agreed. Akumaru barked in agreement to the dog-nin.

Naruto finally spoke up. "So you guys don't care that the nine tailed fox is sealed within me?"

"Of course...not. You are Naruto-kun and the fox is the nine tailed fox." Hinata replied. Naruto smiled in return when the rest of genin nodded in agreement with Hinata. Their reaction to the fox was one of the things that had bothered him most. Even if he knew that before, all of them were fine with it then too.

"So now that they know, what is the next step in our plan?" Neji interrupted.

"Our next step will be getting the next Hokage, because that is what I remember happening next." Shino answered instead.

"Itachi and his partner Kisame attacked during that time too." Sasuke added in. The young Uchiha definitely remember back then. Back when his brother had come to take Naruto for the very first time. Though this time it was going to be different, he actually knew the truth. Hopefully this time he would be able to save his brother.

"Yeah, and we have to be careful with our next steps. One little mishap could change everything." Naruto explained.

"Don't worry Naruto, with all twelve of us helping out we can save the future in no time." Ino said optimistically.

"Yeah maybe, but it could also be our down fall." Sasuke replied.

"It won't be our down fall, I won't let it happen." Naruto interrupted.

Shikamaru sighed and mumbled troublesome, before asking an important question.

"So how are we getting Tsuande-sama here exactly, and when?"

"Ero-sennin is working on it, I am trying to get him to convince the council to let others beside myself go and get Tsunade-Baa-chan." Naruto explained.

"Cool! This already sounds exciting." Kiba commented.

"You guys do know you have to act like you usually do right?" Sakura asked. "Our sensei's are already suspicious enough as it is."

"They...are?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, they been watching us for a while now, and we have had a few close calls with them." Neji answered.

"Then we will just be careful." Choji replied as the others nodded their head in agreement.

"Alright guys, I think we are all up to date now. So let's just lay low for now and when Jiraiya lets me know about finding Tsunade, I will let you know." Naruto explained. Once everyone agreed, they all started to disperse from Naruto's apartment.

***********************

Two Weeks Later

The Konoha 12 were all training in the training grounds with Zabuza and Haku. Currently the twelve of them were facing against the former missing-nin and his apprentice.

"You Gaki's have been getting a lot better, even when I use the mist."Zabuza commented as he blocked attacks with his sword, and then kicked away Lee who was trying to attack him from behind with a kick.

"Though it does definitely give me a nice work out." Zabuza chuckled as he continued to fight the genin off.

"Of course we are a lot better, we have been training." Kiba replied as he barely dodged the barrage of Senbon from Haku.

"Don't get cocky." Zabuza said as he swung his sword at Neji who was about to attack him with gentle fist.

Just as the spar was getting to the climax of the fight. It was interrupted by a large cloud of smoke that appeared in the center of the training grounds. Everyone slid into stances waiting for the smoke to clear so that they all could attack. They relaxed though as soon as they saw Jiraiya standing there.

"Ero-sennin, what are you doing here? We are in the middle of a spar." Naruto called out.

"Shut it Gaki, this is important, and I told you to stop calling me that. I am here to talk about finding my former teammate." Jiraiya explained.

The twelve genin hurried over to the Sannin, while Zabuza looked slightly confused standing next to Haku.

"I thought you guys would be interested." Jiraiya commented as he found that all the genin were now standing around him, waiting for him to continue.

"I talked to the council, they are ok with it, but will only take four. One of course is Naruto, and the Uchiha has to come too because the council demanded so. The other two are up to you." Jiraiya explained.

"That should still work. I want to take Lee and Ino with us." Naruto answered.

"What!? Why me?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, why Ino?" Sakura added. She had wanted to go along as well.

Naruto sighed, "Because, we might need Ino's mind jutsu's and she can be the medic for the team. I choose Lee because he is really fast and a great taijutsu user, for when we run into trouble. Everyone else needs to stay here and hold the fort."

"Oh." Sakura and Ino replied in unison.

Lee however was very excited to go. "Thank You Naruto-kun, I appreciate the compliment and I will do my best to help as much as I can." Lee cried.

"Good, that's what I want to hear Lee." Naruto said.

"If something happens while we are gone, I am counting on you guys to be able to handle it." Naruto told the others.

"Of course Naruto, the rest of us should be fine." Neji replied.

Jiraiya was slightly surprised at Naruto's leadership role of the group. Most of them didn't seem like they had a problem with Naruto explaining to them what to do. Thought that's when he remembered that half of them were actually from the future, and it made a lot of sense. Naruto then turned to Jiraiya once he was done addressing the group.

"When do we leave?"

"We are leaving tomorrow morning around 8, and I would suggest packing for a couple of weeks. I don't know how long it will take to find her." Jiraiya explained.

Four of the twelve genin nodded to Jiraiya's answer, to show that they had heard and understood.

"Since that is all dealt with, we can now get back to our spar with Zabuza and Haku." Kiba said excitedly. Both Zabuza and Haku had stood silently to the side waiting for them to finish.

"About time you guys finished chatting, I was about ready to go find someone else to fight with." Zabuza told them.

"Actually, you were saying something along the lines of that you were glad for a break against the twelve of them. They were really wearing you out." Haku interjected.

"That is not what I said." Zabuza argued.

"Whatever you want to believe." Haku replied in return.

"That's it, Haku you are now on their side and you are going to pay." Zabuza said.

"I am alright with that, it is an even bigger chance that you will lose." Haku answered. Zabuza was about to reply, but Jiraiya interrupted their arguing.

"How about I give you a hand against these Gaki's?"

Zabuza shrugged. "I don't care if you do or not. I just want to win."

"Wahoo! This is going to be fun." Naruto shouted. "You are going down Ero-sennin."

"You wish, kid." Jiraiya replied as he slid into a taijutsu stance. Naruto grinned. He knew exactly how strong the toad Sannin was. Naruto himself slid into a taijutsu stance as well, followed by everyone else. The excitement level in the area was now very high.

With that the spar began, the members of the Konoha 12 had definitely figured out that Jiraiya was a lot harder to hit than Zabuza. It seemed like mass chaos in the training grounds, there were attacks coming from everywhere. Shino had already sent out some of his bugs to try to slowly drain Zabuza and Jiraiya's chakra.

Haku was moving as fast as he could, throwing as many senbon as he could at Zabuza. The former missing-nin blocked as many of the Senbon as he could with his sword, as well as he had to swing at Sasuke who was trying to hit him.

Hinata was following Sasuke's example and trying to attack Zabuza's side with Gentle fist. Zabuza wasn't fast enough to dodge every attack from her, but he did manage to kick her away, but then had to swing his sword at Tenten who was trying to use her own sword against him.

Jiraiya was having just as much luck as Zabuza. Naruto, Lee and Neji were all keeping him busy. He was trying to block attacks from each of them, and he wasn't fairing very well. All three of them had got a few hits in every now and then.

He barely escaped a punch form an incoming Sakura that had just created a small creator in the ground where he had just been standing preciously. She reminded him a lot of his teammate Tsunade. He was brought out of his thoughts when he had to jump away from a rolling Choji, and then had to block an attack from Ino.

Zabuza had just jumped over the small crowd of genin around him, before he had to move once again from an incoming shadow and a swarm of chakra bugs. Zabuza swung his sword once again at Akumaru, sending the dog away, before ducking under a kick from Kiba and then sending him flying away as well.

Just as he had gotten rid of the dog-nin, he was attacked on all sides again from the previous attackers. Zabuza tried to block as many attacks as he could, but it soon became too much. With a sad sigh, Zabuza gave up.

"Alright, alright I give for now. Next time I am getting all of you back." Zabuza grumbled as he walked towards the tree line to wait for the spar to finish. The seven of them looked at each other before heading over towards Jiraiya.

Some more energetic about fighting the Sannin than others. When Jiraiya saw the others coming in the corner of his eye, he knew it was time. With quick movement and precise kicks, he had sent away all the genin around him, before racing through hand signs and slamming his hands on the ground.

"Earth Release: Swamp of the underground."

The ground around the genin had suddenly turned into swamp mud and now all of them were stuck. They wouldn't be able to get out for quite a while. He hadn't used too much chakra.

"Damn it Ero-sennin that's totally not fair." Naruto whined.

"Naruto, ninja's do not play fair, but it looks like I win." The Sannin grinned. "So have fun getting out, I am going to go do some research before we leave." Jiraiya then disappeared in a swirl of leaves a second later.

Zabuza chuckled from his spot next to the trees. "Have fun getting out of that." Zabuza said as he too disappeared from the area.

Everyone then proceeded to get out of the swamp mud, mostly with the help of Naruto's clones. After awhile everyone was finally out of the mud and slightly exhausted.

"Ok everyone, I think we can call it a day. Everyone looks like they could use some food and some sleep." Naruto said. With that, everyone left the training grounds for the day.

******************

The next morning Naruto stood by the gates of the village with Sasuke and Lee. Though Lee was doing 500 push-ups because he wasn't the first one at the gates. Ino walked up to the gates a bit later, greeting the three of them.

"Hey guys." Ino greeted.

Sasuke grunted in response, while Lee kept doing push-ups. So she really only got a normal reply from Naruto.

"Hey Ino, are you ready to go?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I got everything I need." Ino replied. "So where is Jiraiya-sama?"

Just before Naruto could reply, the Sannin in question appeared.

Lee had stopped doing push-ups and was now standing beside Naruto.

"Alright, let's get out of here. The last I heard, my teammate was about a week away from here." Jiraiya informed the group.

The four of them nodded in understanding before they headed out of the village.

*********************

(Four days later)

Shikamaru, Neji, Shino, Sakura, Tenten, Kiba, Choji and Hinata were all leaving the barbeque place when a cloaked figure caught Shikamaru's eye. It was black with red clouds and the figure was wearing a large straw hat was suspicious. Shikamaru made sure to lead the group after the cloaked figure. Shikamaru deducted that the figure had to be one of the shorter members of the Akatsuki.

The other members of the Konoha 12 all had been briefed on the members of the Akatsuki shortly after the invasion. Naruto wanted to make sure they all would be prepared to face them.

Soon they had followed the figure out of the east gate and into the trees. Everyone at first had made it look like they were normally walking through the village just chatting with one another, but once they were led out of the gates they became quiet.

"Do you think they are here for Naruto?" Neji asked after they talked to the guards at the gate and continued out of the village.

"Yeah maybe, but we only saw one of them, so the other has to be around here somewhere." Shikamaru replied.

"I believe Kurenai-sensei had told me that it was Itachi and Kisame that had attacked while Naruto was gone." Shino added.

"Asuma had told me that as well, he said that the four of them had seen them and followed them out of the village. I didn't see any of them on our way out." Shikamaru explained.

"We need to be very careful now, we are dealing with s-class ninja who can easily take us out. I don't really want them to chase after Naruto." Sakura said.

The others all nodded in understanding, before following after the cloaked figure.

"Neji, Hinata what do you see?" Tenten asked after a while.

"I can see both of them now, but the he is just standing there waiting." Neji informed them.

"Also the second…one is a lot shorter…than the other; he looks… like he is hunched over." Hinata explained.

Sakura's eyes widened, she knew exactly who that was.

"We need to go right now, were dealing with Sasori and Deidara." Sakura told them.

"It would be best considering they are now heading in our direction." Neji added.

The eight of them turned around, but had to stop, the hunched over figure was now standing on a tree branch in front of them.

"It looks like a few leaf Gaki's were spying on us, we definitely can't have that." Sasori said.

"Let's show them that art is a bang. Eh." Deidara said.

**********

Naruto, Sasuke, Ino and lee had gotten some training from Jiraiya in the past few days, though Jiraiya left a lot to look for 'research' which was actually sort of looking for information. Though, Naruto was glad that he knew Jiraiya's methods in information gathering; otherwise, he wouldn't be too happy with the Sannin. They really did not have time for Jiraiya's hobbies.

Currently they were in a small town a few days away from Konoha searching for any information on Tsunade, and form what they gathered she had been here a few days ago, so they were not too far behind her.

So now, they had to wait for Jiraiya to get back from his one information-gathering mission to continue to the next town. While they waited, the four of them were training together outside of the village.

Naruto and Sasuke were sparing against each other, as well as Lee and Ino. They didn't want to attract too much attention to themselves.

Just when they were in the middle of their spar, a large group of Kunai came from the trees surrounding them. The four of them used their own Kunai to block as many as Kunai coming at them as they could. As well as dodging out-of-the-way of the others.

The four genin were now standing back to back, looking around everywhere for their attacker.

Suddenly they split apart once again; because a sword came out of know where smashing the ground where they were just standing. A tall blue man stood up from his attack and faced them.

Sasuke and Naruto quickly recognized the man as Kisame. Both of them were now definitely keeping their eyes out for Itachi. Lee and Ino rather knew the descriptions of the Akatsuki members, so it took them a bit to catch on.

"I am surprised all of you dodged that." Kisame told them, as he rested his giant sword on his shoulder.

"Were a lot more trained then you think." Sasuke answered.

"Where is your partner?" Naruto asked.

Kisame seemed slightly surprised by that. After Akatsuki hadn't really been doing that much yet. The main villages should even know about them just yet. Kisame didn't answer, but rushed towards them at high speeds and lashed at them all away with his sword.

All four of them tried to dodge the attack, but they weren't fast enough to get away. The four of them were sent flying a few feet away and into the ground.

"That guy is really fast, what are we going to do?" Lee asked.

Kisame chuckled at them from where he stood.

"You guys aren't as good as you thought." Kisame told them.

The four of them didn't have time to reply for they were now dodging a giant fireball coming from behind them.

They didn't even have time to question where the fireball had come from before they were attacked once more by Kisame.

His sword's scales were now showing, and the scales had added additional wounds to their bodies.

"Alright time for a counter attack. Attack combo 6." Naruto told the four of them.

Lee dropped his weights suddenly and was off, distracting Kisame as the three of them got ready.

"Water style: Water Shockwave." Ino shouted.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" Naruto called out.

"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder" Sasuke said.

All three attacks combined into one sending them towards Kisame at fast speeds. Lee jumped out-of-the-way when he had heard them call out the Jutsu.

Kisame quickly slashed the jutsu apart with his sword, and then smirked at them.

"Is that all you got?" Kisame asked them.

Ino's eyes widened in surprised, she thought their combination was a lot stronger than that.

"How long are you going to stand and watch?" Kisame called out.

"I was seeing how well they would do against you." A voice replied, before Itachi appeared next to Kisame.

Sasuke froze up when he saw Itachi; it had been so long since he had seen his brother. His last words always remained in his head, he could never forget them.

Naruto spoke up before Sasuke could say anything.

"We know the truth. What really happened."

"What really happened? What is he talking about?" Kisame asked.

"I am not sure Kisame." Itachi replied calmly. "We need to leave, the Sannin is almost here. We will have to get the nine tails another time." Itachi added.

Kisame grumbled about it before he nodded in reply. The two of them both disappeared in a swirl of leaves and water.

It was not even a second later when Jiraiya appeared in the small clearing.

"What happened? I felt a lot of chakra surges."

"We were attacked by Akatsuki, and luckily if you hadn't come we would have been done for, and I would probably have ended up with them." Naruto answered.

"They were so strong, we could barely touch them." Ino replied in shock.

"We will have to train harder and do our best next time." Lee responded.

"We were lucky Itachi didn't join in as well." Sasuke finally spoke. "We will have to start planning on how we are going to deal with the Akatsuki."

"Yes, we definitely will have to plan for that, but let's just locate Tsunade-baa-chan first." Naruto replied.

He didn't want to over load on all the stuff they had to do soon. If they took some of the things one at a time, it will be a lot easier and less stressful for the group.

Jiraiya sighed he didn't think the Akatsuki would strike so soon, but it looked like Naruto had already known that they would be. He was very calm about the situation.

"Alright you Gaki's, let's get going already. We are losing track of time." Jiraiya said, breaking everyone out of their thoughts.

"Right Ero-sennin! We need to hurry and find Tsuande-baa-chan." Naruto answered before he started to lead the group to the next town.

"Dobe you are going in the wrong direction, that way is towards the town we were just in." Sasuke commented.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned.

"Right, I totally knew that. I was testing you guys."

Ino, Lee and Jiraiya laughed at Naruto's reply before Jiraiya lead the way to the next town.

***************

Sakura was breathing heavily as she dodged Sasori's poisoned tail once again. She had almost ran into Hinata who was dodging out-of-the-way of Deidara's clay birds.

So far, the fight was not going very well for them. Neji, Kiba and Choji had gotten few good hits on Deidara, and Sakura had managed to hit Sasori when Tenten had used her weapons as a distraction, but that was the closest they had gotten to the puppet user so far.

Shino's bugs had been dying out since the beginning, Sasori had gotten them to die of the poisons he was using, so the bug user had run out of bugs a while ago.

Choji and Shino both now had poison in their system, and Sakura had been able to heal it enough that it was slowed down enough that they wouldn't die anytime soon but, Tsuande would have to heal the rest when she got back.

Sakura wasn't that good of a healer yet, she hadn't trained up her charka enough for a technique like the one she used on Kankuro in the past. She was also sure that making an antidote for a strong poison all of a sudden, would definitely turn to many heads.

Every single one of them was tired, and they were all running out of chakra fast. Even with the eight of them, it was tough facing the two missing-nin. Though hopefully back up would be arriving soon, because they were sure making a lot of noise and chakra had been spiking everywhere.

"You seem to know what the two of us can do quite well, and yet I haven't even seen any of you before." Sasori said as he used his chakra strings to send out Kunai and Shuriken at the genin.

Tenten shot out weapons of her own. Stopping all the weapons as best she could, and took the brunt of the attack. She had dealt with most of them, but unfortunately it wasn't enough and he had been cut by one on her arm.

"We don't tell people what we know." Shikamaru replied as he tried to capture Sasori's shadow, but had to move out-of-the-way of an exploding clay bird.

This fight was going nowhere fast, really, the two Akatsuki members were just toying with the eight of them. If they had been weaker, they definitely would have died by now.

Sakura had quickly rushed over to Tenten while Shikamaru was talking to Sasori. Hopefully she could stop the poison before it got too far like she did for Shino and Choji. The two of them had to stay out of battle now, and be protected by the rest of them.

"I see. That would make sense, how about an exchange of information. Maybe we can even let you all go." Sasori replied.

"If you are going to tell me that you are looking for the tailed beast than I already know. " Shikamaru replied.

"Really, interesting. I didn't think Konoha knew so much." Sasori replied.

"But that wasn't what I was going to tell you. It's very valuable information, just the as valuable as the information I need from you. You leaf genin are definitely interesting." Sasori added.

"Really? How do I know you are telling the truth?" Shikamaru asked. Deidara had stopped throwing clay creatures and was now on a giant bird next to Sasori.

"We have to go Sasori-Danna, Anbu are heading this way." Deidara said, despite that, he wanted to stay and fight more with the genin.

"I know this." Sasori replied as he jumped onto the clay bird.

"I guess it will have to wait until next time Nara." Sasori said as the two Akatsuki members soared up into the sky as Deidara let clay birds and spiders fall down below them and let them explode so that the two of them could get away.

"We need to take cover now." Neji replied when he spotted the clay creatures as soon saw Deidara let go of them.

The genin all moved out-of-the-way as quick as possible and took cover behind a large group of trees.

Once the explosions had stopped and they had come out behind the trees, they found other trees had fallen over and rocks, dirt and tree branches were scattered everywhere.

Of course that was the moment that Anbu had finally arrived to the scene, but all they saw was eight injured and tired genin.

************

I hope you guys liked the chapter, and I hope to update as soon as I can, but sadly I am not sure when that will be next.

Thanks for reading! :)


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